All Sunshine
by Azure dream
Summary: [Post Dirge of Cerberus] Yuffie never forgave herself for her failures, but now it's time for her to face her past. A yuffentine in three parts.
1. Part 1: Intelligence

**Prologue: Sweet (Fever) Dreams**

Her eyes closed and darkness washed over her. It pushed her over like an ocean wave, holding her down. She refused to open her eyes, but knew they would snap open anyway, as this was far less a dream than an over-emphasized memory.

She was right. The heat was surrounding her, and she could see light behind her lids – not the comforting light of a candle in the window, or even the sterile light of fluorescents in a lab. This was orange-red death light, a fire blazing in every direction, eating her precious city with its traditional houses made of wood and rice paper. This was the fire that consumed her mind as surely as the buildings, and she opened her eyes to see Wutai burning to the heavens.

Her eyes stung, but it wasn't for fear or sadness; it was the smoke, building in every direction, assaulting her senses. It made her cough and sputter, the sound only slightly muffling the crackle of the flames. She looked down and groaned – this was her body as a child, and any moment now-

Her mother swooped from behind and wrapped her arms around her, breaking into a run as she picked her up from the street. She was a short woman, but her legs covered more ground in shorter time than would be expected. A large shuriken, sharpened to the point of absurdity, hung at the woman's side. She wore a kimono with only one protective layer underneath, a layer of thin Wutaian chain armor, sprinkled here and there with beads of mastered defensive materia. The gentle chink of the armor was music to the girl's ears as they raced through the stifling heat of the city.

It was mere minutes before they found themselves atop a large hill, and her mother sat her down and knelt before her, letting her short battle kimono brush the grass. The girl absentmindedly ran her hands across the blood red silk with its darker red obi before a hand lifted her chin and she found herself looking at a pair of eyes. Oh, those eyes – her mother's eyes were a strange color, a light blue-gray that looked like pebbles in a pond. Tonight they were harder, sharper, darker; the gray overpowering the blue so that they became storm clouds. They softened only slightly as she spoke.

"There is someone coming who wishes nothing for us but death, my child, my sweet daughter."

She reached to her side and removed the shuriken, all the while holding a sharpened battle fan at the ready. The child reached out with small hands and grasped the weapon by the center ring, accustomed to its weight. She had trained on such items, but had never held her mother's signature weapon before that moment.

"And he will be here soon. You must find a place to hide, Yuffie, so that I may come to you when this ends."

Here she smiled, a faint trace of her usually sunny disposition. There was something clouding her eyes, but Yuffie could not discern it – surely it couldn't be doubt?

"And above all, you must survive, Yuffie, because you are the only hope for this land."

She laid a kiss on the child's forehead, but froze as the sound of footfalls behind her became clear. She did not turn around, but Yuffie could see the man anyway – his long silver hair blowing in the gentle breeze, bright eyes shining with mako in the dark night, long sword still sheathed on his side.

The rest was a blur; her mother opened the fan with a snick and he rushed at her, his speed wholly unnatural – they clashed and parried and dodged without drawing blood for what seemed like hours, but even then, the tall man didn't slow. His energy was boundless, his attacks perfection in motion, and eventually it was all her mother could do to keep up. He waited for an opening – Yuffie saw it too, a space in her mother's defense that was weak – and moved in to finish the fight. The girl rushed forward, throwing the conformer and hoping beyond hope that she had knocked his blade aside. Blood splashed across the ground.

The sword was pushed directly through her mother's stomach, but he didn't let it linger. He pulled back swiftly, and frowned as he looked up and saw the child. She could feel her eyes widening, traveling from him, to her mother, then back again, before she rushed forward to grab the shuriken. She had missed her mark for the first time in what had to be a year; he was too fast, too strong. She was no match for him – and now her mother was dying, her life mingling with the kimono and pooling around her.

She rushed to put her mother's head in her lap, pushing the hair out of her beautiful face – even in the dim light her skin was tanned exquisitely, her features perfectly matched. But now, blood dripped from the sides of her pert mouth, and her beautiful clear-water eyes were glazing over, emptying. Yuffie shut them slowly with her fingers as the tall man crouched beside her.

"It was a very well-aimed strike. You saw the opening as soon as I did."

He turned to face her, but the world had flared up around her with a new clarity. The blood was bright red and the grass startlingly green, and she could even feel the stars glaring at her for being so slow, so weak. Their harsh stares echoed through her head, and the memory, as yet unfinished, began to fade into darkness. Something in the back of her mind screamed that she was no ninja, screamed that a shinobi would have seen that opening three steps ahead…

Screamed that _she_ _wasn't good enough_.

* * *

A/N Welcome to -----, the sequel to Shuriken. I want to thank everyone who read the one-shot and everyone that reviewed it, cause y'all rock. And I REALLY want to thank my beta, Defenestrator, for being so awesome! See you soon with the new chap ; D 


	2. act 1, chapter 1

A/N Oh Snap! It's the return of the XxXxX barrier! (for anyone who hasn't read Shuriken, that's the barrier I use to switch to someone else's POV. I hate it when people just write 'Vincent's POV'and then switch- it totally breaks up the story.)

to my reviewers-

**KatoriTsubasa**- my beta says that descriptiveness is my thing (smiles) Thanks for the support! I'll try to update once a week.

**Chaotic Rei** - thanks! Like I said, once a week updates. Maybe you guys should put me on a story alert?

**Chibified Kitsunes** - yes, a fan of Shuriken! Awesome! Trust me, this is going to delve way deep into Yuffie.

**Endless thanks to my reviewers and my lovely beta Defenestrator!** End Author' Note, let's get this chapter on the road!

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**Chapter 1, Act 1 : A Not-So-Modest Proposal**

The WRO building had been salvaged after Meteor and the Advent incident, chosen for its central location and easy to access – and secure – entrances and exits. It had three levels above ground and seven below, with the top levels occupied by offices, and in some cases, apartments. The basement levels had labs and bunks for scientists and lower ranking officers. All told, the place was as organized as could be hoped for and then some; visitors often wondered how Reeve had put it together.

_Reeve_ often wondered how he had put it together. Of course, his question was never answered. He spent far too much time on crises to ask.

But there were no problems tonight. After yet another group of whack-jobs had attempted to end the world – this time, a group of Deep Ground Soldiers – most of the reconstruction effort was going smoothly. Cloud, Tifa and Barret were traveling between cities to map out any abnormalities in the lifestream, and ensure that it was not visible in any place other than the Northern Crater. The crater itself was a lot less dangerous than it had been a mere year ago; the planet's health was slowly but surely returning, patching itself up in a glorious display of strength.

Cid had taken the Shera and was covering as much ground as possible with Vincent and Shelke, having stopped in Midgar earlier that day to report that compared to the mainland, Wutai was in great condition.

_Wutai…_

Reeve reached over to his desk and grabbed his PHS, punching in the speed dial for his intelligence officer. Yuffie had the most interesting job of the small group, after the latest battle. In one of the slum districts of Midgar, she had found large black feathers surrounding an open crater in the asphalt. The cavity itself looked as if it had been covered for a purpose, but the reasons were unclear; what was clear was that the feathers did not belong to a bird. They were of unusual shape and size, recognizable but on the tip of his tongue, just out of reach.

Yuffie's PHS had turned to the answering machine, but Reeve ended the call with a click and a sigh, running one hand through his long, dark brown hair. Yuffie never checked her messages anyway, so leaving them was a waste…Reeve wondered if people like her were the reason he had gray streaks. It was the only explanation; he was far too young to be graying naturally.

He reached into his desk, sliding the PHS into a pocket while grabbing an envelope and emptying the contents onto the table. Yuffie had made him promise to keep the information between the two of them until she found some other clues – she said she would die if everyone made a fuss over what turned out to be some run-of-the-mill monster.

Reeve laughed wryly. They were AVALANCHE members! They'd never have the luck to run into a regular monster. No, Yuffie had been gone three days without so much as a peep, and these implements of flight that lay before him were the only clues he had to her whereabouts. He swept the feathers back into the envelope and headed for the door of his office.

It was time to get down to the basement.

XxXxX

Darkness again. It swallowed her whole, like the gaping mouth of a monster, tossing her around in its inky depths. She swallowed and braced herself for another painstakingly accurate retelling of an event she'd rather not relive.

Her eyes opened and she was surrounded by trees, trees with pale bark and large green leaves that created a canopy high above her head. The forest was strange – it seemed to have a fog about it. There were no chirping birds or wandering fauna, just motes of dust floating through the sunlight that filtered through the nearly seamless leafy cover.

She followed the trail, already knowing what lay ahead of the sleeping forest – the Altar of the City of Ancients.

The city was beautiful; the centerpiece was a crystal clear lake, surrounded on its banks by soft white sand. Rock platforms jutted out of the water to one large platform where the Cetra would pray. Yuffie turned around, noticing that the memory had chosen to block out everyone but her and the girl on the altar.

It was just as well. She couldn't consciously remember what Cloud or Cid or Vincent or anyone else was doing, anyway. Aeris on the platform, her long hair swaying, and the matching peace of the city, marked by an audible silence; only these things were remembered.

It would be moments now. She couldn't move any further forward, as this was only a memory. She'd look down at her feet, now clad in bright yellow sneakers, and then she'd feel that awful, knowing tingle in the back of her mind, because there would be an enemy nearby. She'd scream for Aeris to move but her voice would catch in her throat as the Great General literally _fell_ _out of thin air_ to kill the Cetra.

He'd even used the technique he had tried on Yuffie's mother 8 years before – the clean stab through the stomach, severing the spine where the masamune exited. Except this time, she wouldn't even be able to try and deflect the attack. His madness had only made him stronger.

Yuffie looked up, willing herself not to look away. She had been unable to stop her friend from dying, so the least she could do was remember it correctly.

The sword sliced through Aeris and broke the silence of the Ancient's City. And as the memory faded into black, the voices on the wind whispered, "_Not good enough."_

XxXxX

Reeve frowned as the lab results paused on the Red Screen of Despair. A password indicator had shown up, requiring the code for 'Project G, Experiment #32-7'.

_All this over a feather. Yuffie, what have we gotten ourselves into?_

The lab technician leaned back in his chair, visibly baffled.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Tuesti. We were sure that all of the experiment files had been unlocked. I didn't know-"

Reeve cut him off with a wave of his hand, shaking his head slowly. The technician paused, and then looked up with a small smile.

"Maybe the computer in Basement Seven, sir? It had access to just about everything anyway. It should be able to unlock this file."

_I'm starting to think that some things should stay locked,_ Reeve thought irritably, looking down. He caught sight of his PHS and scowled, turning to take the elevator from Basement Five to the ground floor. He had given Yuffie a model of Cait Sith to carry with her, one that would have visual and audio recording capabilities. Even if she hadn't called in three days, there was a chance she had sent a message through the robot.

And if that wasn't the case, he could just turn on the moogle and scare her to death for being so inconsiderate. Yes, that sounded like a plan.


	3. act 1, chapter 2

A/N So I've had some serious internet/computer problems over the past two weeks, and I really wanted to make it up to you guys. Some questions are answered in this chapter, but a few more questions are left unanswered, and that's what makes writing fun! I hope you enjoy it, either way.** My beta is teh coolest in the world! That's my thanks to Defenestrator!**

**To my reviewers** - I'm not going to rush this, because I don't want to give you a half-baked story. I want to give you my best in everything, in original plot and canonical descriptions and every single thing else, and I will try to warn you if I'm going to be late on chapters arriving, and I love you(!), so, yeah.

**Side note: In the FF7 Ultimania book-thing, it is said that the bronze claw Vincent wears is NOT a surgical attachment by Hojo, but an Honest-To-God removable bronze arm cover. He has a fully-functioning human arm under there, and if that shows up in my story, you have been warned.**

_The barrier thing isn't working in the design page, so this is the barrier. Welcome to Chapter 2, dudes!_

**Chapter 2, Act 1 : You've Got Mail**

Reeve's office was on the top floor, a corner affair with windows wrapping around to give a wide and unfiltered view of Midgar's slums. The floor was covered in screws, plastic casings and circuit boards, opened electronic devices just waiting to be pieced back together as good as new. The place was large, but there were few chairs, and almost every one was filled when he entered the room. He staggered back, startled, and smiled.

Cid was leaning back on the futon sofa, puffing away at a cigarette and glancing at the clock. He growled a curse and an "about time" when Reeve entered. Shelke was playing with a robotic puppy on the desk, head tilted to the side as she poked away at it. The girl was constantly looking for reason in things, and was very practical – no doubt she found the puppy a frivolous idea. And Vincent was standing against a wall, his arms crossed and his brow slightly furrowed in thought. Reeve crossed the room to sit behind his desk and pushed the robotic toy towards Shelke with a smile.

"You're f$#ing late, Reeve. We've been up here half a goddamned hour." Reeve smiled in a half-hearted attempt to look lively, and turned to face Cid.

"Something's come up, sorry. So you were checking in to see which areas of the planet haven't been reviewed?"

He ticked off in his mind and came up short.

"The Gongaga region is really the only one I don't have confirmation on."

Shelke tilted her head and pushed the puppy away, choosing to join the conversation.

"So we're 'off the hook'?"

He looked away at the question, feeling the weight of guilt on his chest. Hadn't she heard that phrase off of the ninja? The same young woman he had sent out into the world after some godforsaken Shinra experiment with wings that had to be the size of a small plane? He felt something hit the side of his head and turned sharply to see three pairs of eyes trained on him. He blushed slightly and waved his hand.

"Of course. Cloud, Tifa and Barret should be there already taking pictures, so…"

He rubbed the side of his head where Cid's loose change had connected and smiled sheepishly, reaching to turn on the workstation directly behind him. He turned to look at the screen and let out a sigh of relief when the door behind him opened and closed. A voice behind him shocked him into sitting up straight and spinning the chair around.

"Something is troubling you, Reeve?"

Vincent had pushed off against the wall after Cid and Shelke had left, taking several steps toward the desk. Reeve faced the screen again, and typed the password for his message control.

"God's honest? Yes. Something is troubling me." He paused for a moment, wondering if it was a good idea to ask.

"Have you heard from Yuffie?" He searched through the messages and found the usual pictures, invitations, memos…

"No, I have not. But there really isn't a point in worrying about her. Yuffie is more than capable of taking care of herself, and doesn't care much for safety."

Reeve laughed, his shoulders heaving, only tinged by the nervousness he felt.

"I'm sorry, Vincent, but you don't understand. Yuffie's on a mission. She may act silly and childish, but she is all business when I need her to be. And she should have checked in days ago." He found a message from Cait Sith and paused.

"I really think something might've happened to her. Are you gonna watch?"

He smiled knowingly as Vincent sank into a chair behind him, making the only the slightest noise.

_Thought so._

XxXxX

He opened the message file, and his breath caught in his throat as Yuffie's face appeared on the screen.

The message was stopped on Yuffie's face, waiting for Reeve to hit the 'Play' command from his computer. It apparently had several minutes worth of audio and video recorded, more than a quick 'No problems, just the usual' message from the young woman. Reeve hesitated, feeling a sinking sense of dread and wondering if he was really ready to see what was going on.

But then he felt the heat of Vincent's Glare on the back of his neck, and he pressed the 'Play' button.

The kunoichi was crouched in front of the camera, her face set with no hint of her typical smile as she balanced on what appeared to be a tree limb. She had on some manner of costume with the hood pulled back to show her face. The camera was in infrared mode as the night was dark, with barely a hint of the crescent moon's light trickling through the trees. Yuffie held up a long black feather, her eyes narrowing slightly as she did.

"I tracked the feathers through near every major city on the larger continent, but Midgar and Junon had the highest amount. They seem to center around this clearing in the Junon forest, like some sort of nest…"

She turned the moogle-camera briefly to face the clearing, a round grassy area empty of trees and bushes but littered with large black feathers. The camera swooped back to her face.

"It doesn't make any sense, Reeve. Any bird this large would have trouble in a city, with the wingspan being too wide to fly between buildings or houses. They wouldn't be able to hunt or even hide with wings that big. But whoever – or whatever - this is, they travel constantly. How could they even-"

She stopped suddenly and stood up, turning on the spot. She had switched the moogle into auto-focus mode; it turned with her and focused on the man in front of her.

"Your reflexes are uncanny."

He leaned against the tree, his short hair falling into his eyes. His tight leather clothing made his pale skin even brighter in the dark forest, and a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he continued.

"Shouldn't you be somewhere more interesting?"

Yuffie paused a moment, but when she spoke, Reeve could hear the smirk in her voice.

"You tell me, flyboy. Didn't your mother teach you to clean up your mess?"

The man shrugged, straightening up on the tree branch.

"No. But she did teach me how to deal with intruders."

He lunged forward, reaching to his side and drawing a sword out of the sheath on his hip. His movements were so fast that the camera only caught a blur – when the two landed on the ground, Yuffie's entire costume had been cut away, but she was unharmed. The moogle struggled to keep focus as the two darted around the clearing, weapons clashing in a blur of sight and sound. It was close range combat, with the man swinging his sword and Yuffie ducking. Then he would bring up his knee to catch her and she'd roll out of the way. Eventually the sword got caught in-between the points of Conformer and the two paused, snared together. As they pushed back and forth, each trying to break the other's grip, Yuffie gritted her teeth into a grin of acceptance. She now knew what she was up against.

"If I had asked to enter your home, would you have attacked me?"

The man grinned wickedly, pushing against her shuriken.

"If I had known you'd give me such a good fight, I'd have sought you out."

He turned his sword to the side and pushed forward, catching Yuffie clean in the stomach. She turned to the side so that it veered off to the left and plunged one point of the oversized shuriken into his chest. He looked ready to stagger back but leaned forward instead, trudging forward as he lifted Yuffie by the handle of the sword and thrust the sword into a tree on the outskirts of the clearing. He had pinned her so her feet would dangle a foot off of the ground.

Reeve turned chalk-white as a gush of blood spurted from Yuffie's stomach, spattering the grass with a sickening splash. He heard boots clinking against the floor as Vincent moved closer to the screen. In the video message, the man backed away from the tree, his face contorted with pain. He gripped the Conformer with both hands and pulled it out of his chest, thrusting the weapon forcefully into the ground. He covered the gaping wound in his chest with one hand as he stumbled toward the tree and stopped inches from Yuffie's face. When he pushed the hair out of her eyes, Reeve could swear that Vincent growled.

"I hope you survive this so we can meet again, but that doesn't mean I'm going to make it easy for you."

He began stripping her of accessories and tossing them throughout the clearing, while also removing her materia and dropping those in the grass as she watched, still stunned. After what seemed an eternity, he backed away and prepared to remove the sword from her stomach - but Yuffie's foot came up to meet his face, slamming into the side of his head. This time he did stagger back, and she used her other foot to push off of the tree, dislodging the sword with a muffled grunt. She fell forward and caught herself, standing with her legs spread apart, holding the hilt with one hand. The triumph in her grin was not diminished by the blood spilling from her mouth.

"Are you going easy on me? F$&er."

At the sound of her voice, he charged her with the intent of pressing the sword in further, but at the last second she tore the weapon out of her stomach and swiped across his torso, leaving a long gash from his right shoulder to his left hip. He continued on, forcing her against the ground and straddling her, pressing her arms down with his hands. She was now weaponless – Conformer was several paces away and the sword had been knocked out of her hands.

"Rushing to your death? That's alright. I'll grant your last request."

Yuffie frowned for a moment as she glanced at his wounds. The camera shot showed that he was already healing - it was obvious that this fight had ended. She turned her face to look him straight in the eye and spoke clearly.

"Tell me your name."

In the office, Reeve cheered silently. His intelligence officer was in one of the most awful situations he had ever seen and she still had the presence of mind to complete the mission. On screen, the man bowed his head so that his and Yuffie's foreheads would touch, and whispered in her ear; then he stood, a smirk playing on his features as he towered over her.

"But the doctors always called me Genesis."

A lone black wing spread from his back and he flew straight upwards, the moogle-cam following his motion until he was out of sight. It turned back to the sputtering ninja, who was crawling towards the nearest tree, and propped herself up against it, facing the moogle.

"Yeah, Reeve, definitely NOT the average monster. Maybe now would be a good time to call for backup?"

She laughed weakly, blood bubbling out of her mouth to spill down the sides. She grimaced at the sight of her own blood and wiped her face, her hand trembling.

"But don't tell Dad - he probably saw this coming."

She paused for a moment, and smiled.

"Try not to show up to this point at all. Teef'd freak if she saw all the blood."

She reached forward to touch the moogle screen with a bloodstained finger and the message ended with static.


	4. act 1, chapter 3

_A/N_ aaaaaaand we're back. I apologize for the extreme delay...I have no real reason for it. I mean, I went to school and used up all my writing juice on english papers, but I'm sure I can pull off the rest of this story now.

Major thanks to everyone who's stuck with this story. It's time to get back to it! Oh, and for newbs, I meant it when I said this was a Yuffentine. Can you tell yet?

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**Chapter 3, Act 1: Ephemeral Elation**

_If she carried the mastered Cure materia like I asked, she might be okay. She could be just fine._

Reeve began typing the commands for immediate video surveillance from the moogle cam, trying to escape the feeling of impending doom. Yuffie was very possibly dead, and besides the idea of losing another friend to a Shinra experiment, it could also be said that he had sent the Wutaian princess to her demise. The diplomatic repercussions could be catastrophic; he'd have to face Lord Kisaragi -

_- assuming some member of AVALANCHE doesn't kill me first…_

Pushing aside the wave of panic, Reeve turned for a moment to see Vincent standing directly at his side. It was unnerving how quietly the man could tread in steel boots.

"The moogle cam is uploading now. It should lead us right to her." Vincent hadn't turned to look at him, but his stiff posture and stern gaze spoke volumes. Reeve turned to the screen and watched as the image began to materialize.

The screen was partially covered by something burgundy – with a retch, Reeve realized that it was dried blood. He put in a command for the moogle to clean the camera lens and tried not to wonder how it had gotten there.

As the moogle sprayed cleaner on itself, the wheels in Reeve's mind spun. Yuffie was a tough girl, and she had been adrenaline charged by the battle. She could have crawled to the nearest potion bottle and drank more potions until she was fit to walk, or called a nearby chocobo…she was very talented on the birds. She could ride injured if need be. Also there was the obsession with materia; she wouldn't leave the clearing without finding every last orb the man had thrown. With these thoughts in mind he looked up again, and saw through the moogle's 'eyes'.

It was a nicely sized room, with cabin-like wooden walls and a thatched roof. Sunlight poured in through a large open window, tainted slightly green by the leaves of the trees outside. The bed underneath the window was occupied, and an empty pail sat beside it. Overall, the room appeared to belong to small, cozy house, and the general positioning information from the moogle said it was still just outside the Junon forest.

The moogle turned and auto-focused on the figure in bed. Yuffie lay still, her abdomen covered in bandages; she was still wearing her bloodstained battle clothes, but her visible skin was clean. Her hair had become plastered to her forehead with sweat, and she lay above the sheets shifting only minimally. The moogle turned instead to the doorway of the room, where a young boy stood with a pail of water.

He was also wutaian, with sun tanned skin and jet black hair. His large dark eyes widened slightly as he realized the moogle had moved seemingly of its own accord, but he edged forward instead of reeling back. As he moved closer to the camera it became clear that he was not much older than seven or eight. He set down the pail by Yuffie's bedside and inspected the moogle, poking it to watch the reaction.

Reeve took the chance to speak up, slowly and carefully.

"This moogle is a communication device," He said, and the boy jumped backward. "It's nothing to be afraid of -" Reeve amended quickly, and returned to what he hoped was a soothing tone. "But it allows me to see and hear my friend Yuffie. Is she okay?" The boy ran to the door again, pulling a woman by the hand. She too was Wutaian, with black hair flowing to her waist and the same large, dark eyes. She sat in front of the moogle as the boy whispered urgently in her ear. Finally she spoke.

"And who might you be?" Her eyes narrowed slightly. Reeve, though he realized the distance between them, twisted under her heated glare. Vincent's hand tapping his shoulder reminded him to respond.

"Reeve Tuesti. Vincent Valentine is here too. We're friends of Yuffie's -" the young woman snorted and gestured toward Yuffie.

"Some friend you are, letting this happen." She stood and motioned for the moogle to follow her to Yuffie's bedside, where she held out her hand. The boy handed her a knife; she paused over Yuffie's sleeping form for a moment, pointing things out with the tip of the blade.

"You see?" The veins of Yuffie's eyelids were visible, tinted a sickening green. It appeared everywhere; the veins of her arm, the arteries of her legs. The woman began cutting away the bandages to reveal an ugly open wound, just beginning to heal.

"We've been administering potion non-stop. Even her mastered materia does next to nothing…green liquid flows out and the wound closes a little bit. And we repeat the process, even though we're running out of herbs to treat her with." The young woman turned to the camera now, and she looked as if she had aged considerably during that short time.

"What can you possibly do?" Silence reigned for what seemed an eternity before Vincent shuffled to Reeve's right, and spoke clearly.

"The facility we reside in now is where this…poison was manufactured. I'm sure of it. The medical laboratories here will be far more capable to deal with her injury." His tone brooked no argument. The young woman began wrapping the wound again with fresh bandages, glancing back almost sheepishly to hear the rest.

"Have her ready for transport…we'll arrive within two hours' time."

XxXxX

Reeve made sure to pinpoint the location of the moogle, and as he uploaded the information to the Highwind's computer, he had to ask.

"What makes you so sure it's a poison? I've never seen a poison do that…" Vincent had already opened the door, but he paused just long enough to answer.

"I am not entirely sure of what it is. But it appears to fall into the category. Your doctors can work on it when she arrives." And again, his comment closed the discussion. Reeve shifted his weight as the door closed, dialing his PHS to catch Cid. If he knew the pilot, Cid would have stopped at Seventh Heaven before returning home to Shera.

The phone rang twice, and before Cid could answer Reeve had him.

"Cid, it's Reeve. Vincent will be there any minute, and he's going to tell you to fly to Junon. Don't argue – the exact coordinates are already in the Highwind's computer. You'll be picking up Yuffie, and she won't throw up because she's already…asleep." He paused for a moment to let Cid digest the information and respond.

"….sure f#&ing thing. Anything else, oh sultan?" His words were beginning to slur, but Reeve knew just what to say to sober Cid up.

"Yeah, Cid. Vincent's going to be _pissed_. Just giving you the head's up." The silence that followed was answer enough. Ten minutes later he watched remotely as the Highwind took off, and saw the red speck of Vincent's cape on the main deck.

* * *

A/N I dunno about you, but I'm mad excited to have Vincent and yuffie reunited, even if she's out of commission for a little while. The fun begins in earnest!

(Hey, caladchbolq, this is my favorite fandom to write right now. Does it show? I'm so excited to be writing fanfiction again. Maybe you can update too, huh? winkwinknudgenudge)


	5. act 1, chapter 4

A/N: I'm sorry for not putting up review responses this time, but I wanted to get this out like NOW. This chapter took _forever_ to write because 1) no one character would be able to narrate it 2) a lot of stuff is happening and 3) I'm trying not to rush it.

Keeping Vincent IC is so important to me...anyway, here's the chapter. I'm already working on the next one (which will be loads easier to write) so expect it within 2 days or less. Thank you for your patience...I know every author says it, but I have the best readers ever.

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**Chapter 4, Act 1: From the frying pan...**

Her body was so limp, so _lifeless_, that he almost couldn't bear to lift her from the bed and carry her to the ship. Her skin burned as if she housed a furnace in her ribcage, and when her eyelids were lifted her pupils were exceedingly round – it looked like their darkness threatened to devour the rest of her eyes.

The woman and her son had a bag filled with the accessories and weapons Yuffie had carried. She had no potions left – it seemed that she had drank them all while she painstakingly gathered her materia and items from the ground where Genesis had tossed them. She had managed to drag herself to the doorstep of the cabin on what the woman described as "Cure materia, endurance and sheer audacity". Surprisingly, the wound hadn't become infected; it appeared that the poison, whatever foul substance it was, completely sterilized any other threat.

The crew of the Highwind had run lukewarm water in a tub for Yuffie to lie in. Her temperature needed to be stabilized, but icy water could send her further into shock. Throughout the entire process of the trip, only Vincent had laid hands on her; Cid had shook his head and murmured cusswords, shouting louder than usual at his crew, urging the ship to fly faster. When crewmen walked past the room where the princess lay in the water, her arms dangling on either side of the tub uselessly, they tread quietly and dared not disturb the man in the red cloak who stood vigil at her side.

Their arrival at the WRO building sent a ripple of awareness through the structure. The medical labs of Basement Floors 4 through 7 had been ordered online for the arrival of a patient, though none of the scientists or soldiers had any idea of whom or what would come through the door. Reeve had gone out himself to meet Cid, Vincent and Yuffie and lead them through the less traveled corridors to the basement. He had not decided whether or not the other members of AVALANCHE should be aware of Yuffie's condition; primarily because Yuffie would hate a blow to her pride, and secondarily because someone would be sure to kill him over it. Vincent would have argued that this was not a time to spare Yuffie's pride, but then the kunoichi had whimpered and shifted in his arms, and the shock delayed him. Of all the sounds he had heard her make – obnoxious babbling, hyperactive monologue, battle cries, serious whispers – a whimper had no place among them. He looked up at Reeve pointedly and followed the director inside.

The hallways they used were near completely empty, the doors on either side leading to rooms of broken equipment or, on lower levels, broken medical tanks. Vincent felt the slightest urge to shudder as he saw them; some were obviously broken by creatures that should have never been created. Although he knew what he had said was right (in that the best treatment for Yuffie would be here), the medical labs of WRO were far too similar to some other labs for his taste…

"Here we are." Reeve gestured to a large room with only a dozen workers inside; doctors and scientists in their lab coats, and two computer technicians sitting at consoles. The scientists and doctors had paused and turned to look at the newcomers, and Vincent noticed how they were gathered around an object. As they saluted and began moving again, he saw a large, reinforced medical tank filled with water behind them.

Yuffie's examination was short, but thorough. The doctors assigned to the task stitched the wound, collecting a small sample of the green fluid for review. Vincent described the nature of Yuffie's fever to two female doctors that worked on adjusting the temperature of the medical tank. The woman was taken away for a few minutes and brought back in her recovery suit; a thin wrap to cover her chest and inordinately small shorts, all black.

She was fitted for a breathing mask and when the tube was attached, lowered into the tank. The tank had a hole for materia, where the materia would touch a mako reserve and effectively give the tank the effect of that materia. Vincent recognized the old design immediately; the monsters Shinra had created during their reign were made this way, with treated water and elemental materia. But the mastered Cure dropped into the hole gave the water a blue-green glow, and if they were fortunate, would allow Yuffie's wound to heal properly.

XxXxX

Vincent stood stock-still as the Red Screen of Despair appeared on the massive monitor of the computer station. It had been hours since the Highwind had arrived back in Midgar, but there were now more questions than before, and even fewer answers.

The green fluid extracted from her wound had the scientists completely baffled. It appeared to be mako; with the exception of the dark tinge, it was physically exactly the same. Somehow though, the researchers could never stay too close to the substance for any amount of time. They became saddened, unreliable and prone to hallucinations. Eventually a senior examiner called a break, after one of the scientists broke into tears.

Yuffie's bag of items had turned up nothing extraordinary with the exception of several large black feathers and a crumpled piece of paper. The feathers had small bits of flesh and blood on them, as if they had been forcibly removed from a wing. The paper was smudged with dirt and blood, and bore only the word "Genesis". The DNA sample on the feathers had led to the Red Screen on the monitor, with a 6 letter password window lingering in front of the assembled crowd.

To Vincent's left, Reeve was frowning.

"Shinra experiments were numbered oddly. They began at 1 for each new lead scientist. If we can find who 32-7 applied to, we might be able to guess their password." The director motioned for two researchers to come to his side, and quickly dispensed orders to search the experiment archives for the number and name of the head scientist and assistant. With any luck, they would be able to identify the substance before it left any lasting damage on Yuffie.

_But since when,_ Vincent thought as he turned and looked into the glass tank where the shinobi floated listlessly, _have we been able to count on luck? _He squinted slightly as green fluid began to float away from where Yuffie's stitches were in her abdomen, and watched as the young woman began to twitch and shift. She was beginning to thrash as more of the liquid seeped out, and the machines monitoring her temperature and heart rate showed her duress. Her eyes flicked open as doctors flocked the scene, and the darkness in them seemed to have a mind all its own.

XxXxX

The corridor was lined with metal, in the typical structure of Shinra Laboratories. The temperature of the underground facility didn't bother her – her focus was on the man ahead, her every sense tied to him. The cold that should have been biting at her exposed skin merely tingled as she stalked him.

The bandages that he used to adorn himself appeared frivolous. The binding over his mouth did not prevent his excessive talking; they in no way altered his actual performance. She would scoff if remaining undetected weren't so important. Then again, it appeared to be a lost cause – he had been walking in circles for quite some time now, as if to lose her. Finally she stomped her foot down with a small smile and watched him turn, feigning surprise.

"Nero the Sabre, right? I swear, you Tsviets have the dumbest names." He took a step forward, but she did not budge. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a voice swore, called her an idiot – told her that she'd done this before, that she should

_Focus on waking up! This isn't real—_

"I mean, a color-coded task force? What are you, in kindergarten?" Her mind was beginning to shout now, through the fog of her memories.

_I'm reliving this. Why? Think about why! Yuffie, focus!_

"Besides, everyone knows black isn't a color anyway," the barb was cut short as her consciousness began to take hold.

_I fell asleep. And now I'm dreaming these things over. Except it's getting harder to remember that I'm just dreaming._

In the memory, Yuffie shook her head, beginning to fight the compulsion to just follow the visions. Despite what had actually happened, she took Conformer and swiped at the wall, watching with grim satisfaction as it broke away into shards. The rest of the corridor was beginning to splinter, and she struck the walls and floor repeatedly, exposing an inky black darkness. As the rest of the vision fell away, it was swallowed whole – and behind her, Yuffie heard the faint sound of clapping. She turned slowly, knowing that whoever it was already had the upper hand.

The leather suit would have been enough of a giveaway, but the wing was really a clincher. She didn't know where she was, but wherever it was, Yuffie and Genesis were there together.

* * *

A/N: no, I have not played DoC. I read the translations and went from there...except that that was like, last summer. This is about as much of it as will appear anyway, aside from the secret ending thing.

You might not have noticed, but I don't like Shelke _at all_. So she probably won't appear very much beyond Part 1. And Lucrecia...well, you'll see about that.

Yuffie is dangerously close to being awake, and I am SO EXCITED to write it. See you soon!


	6. act 1, chapter 5

A/N: okay, how about I stop lying to you. I don't know when I will update, just that I will because I am dying to get out my Yuffentine Love, and it's a much better idea for you to not believe me and put me on story alert.

You might think that there's a lot of holes in this chapter, but that's just stuff I don't wanna tell you yet. Sorry And as always, I must thank you for being such awesome readers.

Notes - **Wutaian** _Thoughts or emphasis_ Notes, files, ledgers

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**Chapter 5, Act 1: The Weak and the Dead**

"You don't need your weapon. Physical fighting has no purpose here." Genesis flicked his short brown hair out of his face with a small smile. His wing folded behind his back and disappeared as he motioned for Yuffie to get comfortable. The kunoichi hesitated before strapping conformer to her back again, reasoning that if he tried anything, she could still reach for a small knife or shuriken.

"You say 'here' like you know where this is." She leaned back slightly, letting her posture slip into something less combative, and waved her hands to emphasize her point.

There was no landscape, no sky or ground or boundary to the darkness around them – just a trifling flicker of light emanating from the two themselves, allowing them to see each other from their short distance of a few feet. The lanky man glanced at their surroundings as Yuffie attempted to reason through her situation.

_I just returned from a memory. Which means that I can only be inside my own head...my totally-screwed-up head, yeah, but my brain._ She paused a moment and watched Genesis as he reached into the darkness and moved his hand around. Beyond his perimeter of light, it looked like his hand was being eaten by the shadows. _And sure, this guy is wrong in a lot of ways, but he can't physically be here, in my head, right? Right. So he's either a) my imagination or b) able to do the Sephiroth-mind-trick._ Yuffie shuddered involuntarily. Sephiroth's mind trick was so creepy! Looking up, she saw that Genesis had tilted his head to the side and was examining her after her reaction.

It was time for a test.

"Genesis, right?" The man in question straightened up and began to look serious.

"Of course. You haven't forgotten me already, have you? You were losing a lot of blood." He smirked, an expression Yuffie knew all too well from their fight. She continued.

"And your name was…?"

"I don't need a name. Names are for humans. But the doctors called me-" Yuffie waved him off.

"Yeah, yeah, I know what the doctors called you. What were their names?" It was the moment of truth.

_If he can't tell me, it's probably because he isn't real…he can't answer anything I don't already know about him. _She didn't want to think of the other option, and had no time to.

"You may have heard of this one…Head Scientist Gast?"

XxXxX

"Head Scientist Gast!" Reeve turned on his heel and watched as a young researcher ran toward the computer console with papers in hand.

"32-7. The 32nd experiment by Head Scientist #7, which was Gast." The man halted with confusion clear in his eyes, glancing at his superior in dismay. "But the stories had it that Gast refused to create anything harmful for Shinra. How could he be involved in what happened to Miss Kisaragi?" As the papers were handed over to one of the workers at the computer consoles, Reeve turned to Vincent.

"How many researchers were working under Gast? …If I remember correctly, the Head Scientist didn't always know about every trial going on in the labs – dozens of scientists could have had their hand in this." Vincent didn't bother to turn away from the tank, but Cid answered in his stead.

"That's damn right. There probably were at least a dozen aholes working on this behind his back, and I'll be damned if one of them ain't--" the computer technician gave a start as a password bubble appeared on the screen.

"A password Dr. Gast would have used, six letters." While the others were working it out in their minds, Vincent's voice drifted through the silence.

"Ifalna. I-F-A-L-N-A."

XxXxX

"Little Kunoichi. You look so _confused_." Genesis walked forward, pushing the darkness to either side as he approached a dumbstruck Yuffie. "Did you think you were hallucinating?" He stopped and smirked, not two feet away from her. "Actually that would be rather flattering, you dreaming of me." Yuffie frowned and felt the shock of her realization wear away.

_So he can do the Sephiroth mind trick. Big deal! That wimp Cloud took it, and so can you._

She smiled at this thought and envisioned the Chocobo-Head fighting Sephiroth out of his brain.

_I know it can be done. I've seen him do it…and Vincent too. Except he had monsters but Sephiroth and monsters aren't really all that different and in any case I should definitely be focusing on this guy._

Yuffie straightened her stance and stared at Genesis, who looked slightly bemused. Did he expect to get all of her attention just because he had invaded her mind? Who did he think he was?!

The darkness had begun to push in on her light bubble while she was psyching herself up, and Yuffie felt the pressure of it on all sides. Tensing herself for attack, she unhooked Conformer and crouched slightly, letting adrenaline surge through her.

"This is a private party." She paused. "And who the hell are you to call me _little_?!" And with that, she lunged.

XxXxX

The file was long and meticulously detailed; searches on words had been the only hope of finding information on the poison. 'Poison' turned up in too many points of the ledger, while 'fever' had no hits at all; the computer refused to search for the word 'green', saying it was too vague. Finally Reeve looked up, clearly at the end of his rope. It had been at least 6 hours since Yuffie had arrived, and the archaic filing system of the Shinra basements had added no less than 2 of those hours to the wait. He grit his teeth and wondered about the substance.

_She's barely moved inside of the tank…it must be affecting her actions. The Yuffie I know would have tried to smash the glass by now._

_Then again, didn't the scientists say it looked like--_

"Mako! Search mako."

_And I swear to God if this doesn't work I will dig up Gast's __**grave**__ and shake him._

After a moment's delay, the worker in front of the file made a noise of surprise and read aloud.

"While searching for a cure for_ mako_ poisoning we have stumbled across a strange discovery; _mako_ that has been used as an energy source will separate into two liquids. 

One section will remain a soft green that resembles its natural form, and evaporates after about an hour's time (depending on the quantity). 

The second takes on a shade of green that is unusually dark for the substance and must be purified or destroyed, as it makes no attempt to rejoin the planet."

The technician scrolled down with a whistle, pausing when Reeve tapped the screen. Cid and Reeve leaned in to read with him, but Vincent had still not moved. In the tank, Yuffie was tensing and thrashing, her eyes squeezed shut.

"The most peculiar part of this study is that the separate liquids have two entirely different effects on the patient. The one patient that had been accidentally exposed to the dark _mako_ has complained of severe depression and violent tendencies afterwards. 

It appears that while normal _mako_ poisoning causes the patient to lose their identity entirely, this new form of poisoning leaves the patient with only the darkest portions of their memory and personality."

The technician turned around, one eyebrow slightly raised in disbelief. When he spoke, his voice was quiet and unassuming.

"I've worked with Miss Kisaragi before, when she was first finding information on the Deep Ground Soldiers. She was in an underground lab with caged fiends, transmitting a video to me…the cages had been unlocked, but by the time I could warn her she was surrounded." He paused, bemusement in his tone. "She didn't even flinch, you know? She looked down at the camera and _smiled_. She told me to enjoy the show." He directed his gaze toward Yuffie now, wondering. "It can't affect her that badly, can it? I mean, she's all sunshine."

Vincent frowned as the woman in question jerked, her leg rushing up to slam her foot into the glass. The others jumped back as the glass cracked, a spider web forming in the middle of their line of sight; Vincent stared into the tank and Yuffie's eyes opened slowly. A dark green tinge flooded out of them, leaving her gray eyes wide and confused. She put her palm flat against the glass, gazing at him, weariness seeping out of her every pore.

"_Help me_," she mouthed.

He didn't think - he didn't even breath. As the scientists and doctors swarmed around him, he vaguely heard them yelling "NO!" while his claw smashed into the spider web. The water surged out over him as Yuffie descended to the bottom of the tank on her feet. She tore off the breathing mask and took several gulps of air before stumbling forward.

Vincent pushed her back into the tube to protect her feet from the broken glass, reaching into the tank's cap and retrieving her mastered Cure materia. He tossed it backward to Cid before lifting the young woman out of tank, and turned to see that he was surrounded by the doctors and scientists in their white coats. The computer technician stood and pushed doctors and scientists to the side as Cid, Vincent and Reeve walked toward the bed where Yuffie had been examined – Reeve handed the girl a towel as Vincent let her down to her feet.

She murmured her thanks in Wutaian, taking care to use the honorifics allowed for each of her friends. It was strange--

_Not only is she too tired to translate, she's switched to proper speech. _

Not for the first time, Vincent thanked the Planet that he had learned the language as a Turk. He translated to Cid and Reeve while Yuffie collapsed onto the bed, and Cid scoffed.

"At least this has knocked some damn manners inta ya." But he was frowning. He raised the mastered Cure to her stomach where the translucent bandages showed her wound bleeding openly.

"Cure 3!" Cid and Reeve watched Yuffie's wound finally close, leaving a raised scar that was an inch and a half long, just above her navel. Vincent was still listening to Yuffie whisper as Reeve straightened and frowned.

"Yuffie…magic can't heal you beyond this point; at least, not properly." His mouth turned up in a never-ending grin. "Looks like you're going to have to rest _like a normal person._" Even in her altered state, Yuffie's eyes turned stormy gray. Vincent pushed her shoulder down as she attempted to sit up.

**Do not waste your energy - you will need it to recover.** She nodded, a trace of a pout finding its way into her expression. Vincent fought back the relief he felt at her antics; it was too soon to see how she had been affected by the poison. He watched as her eyes began to flutter shut, and she yanked his collar toward her so that he could hear her speak.

**No more than six hours of sleep...we have a lot to do.** He frowned.

**You need more rest than that--** She grinned quickly.

**Sleep is for the dead, and I am very much alive.**

* * *

A/N: She's Up! Yes! And more Vincent to come, promise. See you soon! 


	7. act 2, chapter 1

**A/N:** HUGE chapter because I couldn't decide where to end it. Also, here begins Act 2! OhMyGawd!

Thanks to all of you who story-alerted...that means a lot to me. I hope you enjoy what's up! Just a note to Readers - if you're not familiar with DoC, Crisis Core and such, go find the Final Fantasy Wiki and look it up. I decided to try and be half canonical. Um, also warning for minor language.

**bold is for Wutaian. **_Italics are for thoughts and emphasis._ Enjoy!

**

* * *

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**Act 2, Chapter 1: Anything AND Everything**

**He can invade your mind. How weird is that?** She stood a few feet in front of him, her back exposed with her treatment outfit on. He could see her scar from where the sword had pierced through her body, the raised tissue paler than her golden skin.

**I had to fight him again, in my head.** Her hand reaches forward and she turns her wrist, playing in the dim light. He looks around and sees a campfire behind him, throwing the warm glow through the small clearing in which they stand. If he remembers correctly, it's in a copse of trees just outside of Rocket Town. Her yellow backpack, probably full of stolen items, sits next to his black canvas bag, just like they used to when they traveled to defeat Sephiroth. He turns to face her again.

**It was…difficult. Like walking through sludge. Total grossness.** She pantomimes slow movements as he walks forward slowly. She must be cold – she's too far from the fire to feel its warmth, she's wet and barefoot and barely clothed at all. He unbuckles his cloak as he walks, but as he whips it off of his shoulders to wrap her in it she turns.

She is covered in blood, head to toe, her hair is matted with it; it gushes from her stomach and bubbles from her mouth. Her gray eyes are lit from behind with dark green light, her reconnaissance garments torn and shredded. He suppresses the faint urge to retch and does not back away from her as she moves closer.

**During the fight his blood splashed me, and I know that something's changed.**

Breathing is almost a struggle now as it connects in his mind. Genesis had pinned Yuffie to the ground when they still both had open wounds, and it was very likely that his blood had spilled into the lesion on her stomach. The sword thrust couldn't have pushed enough 'dark mako' into Yuffie's body to incapacitate her for so long, which meant

_it was transmitted through his blood._

XxXxX

Vincent's eyes snapped open as his PHS played the 'voice message' tone. He had missed a call in his sleep, but that was not his main concern.

The computer console closest to the door in Basement 7 still had the file 32-7 open. The screen was partially obscured by the window in front of it stating that it had been downloaded to Reeve's office computer 10 floors above. In the bottom left corner, the clock showed that Yuffie still had 2 hours of undisturbed sleep before she demanded to be roused. Vincent stood and backed away from the desk, retrieving the PHS from his pocket and striding toward the elevator. His thoughts drifted back to his dream.

_She said all of those things, when she woke up._

And she had. While Cid and Reeve had fussed and worried about her bleeding, Vincent had been listening to her fevered, rapid murmuring in Wutaian. She was worried, she said, about what was happening to her; the poison was psychological, she warned, far more so than physical. But then Reeve had caught her attention, and her disposition had changed from the nervous and heated to playful and confident.

_To what she's supposed to be…_

Vincent shut his eyes and tried to dispel the thought. Yuffie had been moved to her apartment on the 3rd floor, in order to make her more comfortable and allow her to change into her own clothes when she woke. The first measurement of how the poison had affected her would be to see how she acted in her familiar surroundings again. Whether or not the presence of all of AVALANCHE would help remained to be seen; but the fact of the matter was that as soon as Yuffie was settled in her own bed, Reeve had set about calling every member of the team to ask them to convene at the WRO building.

The voicemail message on his PHS had Cloud's name attached, and if Vincent had been the betting type, he'd bet his ass that they were already being briefed of the situation in Reeve's office.

_And that Tifa is ready to murder Reeve for keeping quiet all this time…_

XxXxX

Yuffie had slept only 3 hours before snapping awake.

Her materia and possessions were at her bedside, along with her boots and what remained of the clothing she had worn to Junon. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make an outfit last more than a few months.

_But Cloud can go FOREVER without buying anything. How does that work?!_

At least she had the skills to obtain gil quickly. The method wasn't what one would call _fair_ to all parties involved, but that was life.

She had rummaged for another pair of shorts and another thigh high set of tights, a new shirt and headband, and various belts to hold daggers and shuriken. Within the hour her materia had been placed into her accessories and Conformer again, and she was ready to move. Not that she had any place to _go, _but moving was always preferable to standing still.

In the hallway of the 3rd floor, she could hear what sounded like whispers from Reeve's office. It had been important to her that she obtain a room close to where the important things went on in the WRO building – her practical side had screamed "I need to be ready for anything!" (Her 19 year old side had screamed about not running up two flights of stairs like a doofus.) She could hear someone giggling…

_Tifa. When did she get back?_

If Tifa was back, then Cloud would be there too. They were rarely separated after that last incident with Sephiroth clones. Actually, in that year's time Cloud had become much different, too. More fun, easier to joke with, and very easy to talk to - when she got to talk to him.

_…When is it, anyway?_

Well then. There it was. She didn't feel like interrupting the meeting, and she didn't feel like being seen just yet. But it would be nice to know the _day_, and the time too; the sun was at some point in the sky that said late afternoon, and that wasn't specific enough. The way she had been dreaming, it felt like it could have been an eternity asleep.

It was hard for her to walk, let alone walk sneakily like the Great Ninja she was. Her legs felt like jell-o, her stomach was grumbling like some sort of strange mountain monster and her head was a fish out of water. Two elevators were situated on either end of the hall, the lit indicators showing that both were near the top floor. Yuffie would have preferred to take the stairs, but even she knew that she was in no condition to walk all that way to the first floor's kitchen. She took a gamble on the elevator to her right being empty, and trudged over to it to press the call button.

_Didn't even have to pass the office door. Score one for me!_

XxXxX

Reeve shivered and dropped his head. Someone was glaring at him, but no one had blown their top yet. The gravity of the situation seemed to push aside the use of petty squabbling.

The meeting had been tense with worry until Tifa asked where Vincent and Yuffie were; as Reeve mentioned, almost casually, that Vincent was probably visiting Yuffie Tifa's mouth turned up into a wide smile. (It was directed at Cloud, who was shaking his head…Reeve didn't question their silent exchange.) When Reeve cleared his throat and said that Yuffie was not in the best condition, all of the eyes in the room were on him.

He had been relatively comfortable with scores of attention, until that moment.

The story was told backward. "Yuffie is okay, but she was attacked during a mission for the WRO by what we now know is a Shinra experiment..."

Gasps. Swearing.

"we had a tough time treating her because the poison was manufactured there too-"

From Nanaki's place by the couch, a low growl.

"she's resting, and magic can't do any more for her;"

The look on Cloud's face was a mix of shock and concern tinged with morbid curiosity.

"but her wound has closed, finally."

A heavy silence permeated the room only to break like glass against a stone floor.

"Finally?! How long has she been under?"

_Fatherhood has softened Barret,_

Reeve noted. The man looked indignant at the _suggestion_ that Yuffie went without care.

"She was missing for three days, in Junon's Healing House. We picked her up this morning, so 3 and a half days, give or take a few hours."

The statement was hanging in the room, making the air thick and heavy. It was Cloud who spoke first.

"That…doesn't sound like poison, unless you mean mako poisoning." Reeve glanced up in time to see Tifa cringe. She remembered what mako poisoning looked like – like Cloud forgetting his name, looking in the mirror and shouting about an intruder. It resembled days and nights of crying behind her smile, showing him objects to jog his memory. She fought the memory away and gazed back at Reeve, wine red eyes now more than vaguely intimidating.

"There's something you're not telling us." Reeve nodded almost shyly at that, and turned to his monitor. File 32-7 was open to the subject of polluted mako.

"…it sounds like mako poisoning because it _is_." He read the little bit of information given on the substance grimly. "We're still not sure how she was poisoned, and the wound didn't even close until Yuffie woke up…" While Reeve paused to consider how it had occurred, Nanaki cleared his throat.

"Mako affects the body greatly, but not nearly as immensely as it affects the mind. I thought that mako poisoning patients had to have some sort of fight to get better?" He turned his one amber eye on the spiky blond, who looked to the ground. He sat in silence a moment, choosing the words for his answer carefully.

"You keep reaching for the parts of you that are missing. The memories in your head aren't always yours, so it's hard to separate yourself from it. And then you fight something that you remember as being terrifying." He looked up and wondered a moment, and decided what to say.

"It's like beating that fear gives you the right to wake up, the right to claim your identity again. And the mako flashes other things into your head for a while, but eventually that goes away, too." He scanned the concerned faces with a small smile.

"Yuffie's beaten the hard part of it - now she'll just have to put up with the leftovers. Nothing our Great Ninja" - he struck a pose with Ultima Weapon - "can't handle, right?" The room erupted with laughter as Cloud leaned back against the wall. He turned to Tifa who had tears of laughter sparkling in her eyes.

"Cloud! You should have held it. I would've taken a picture!"

XxXxX

He had knocked on Yuffie's door before entering to find the room a shambles (not surprising in the least) and very lacking in the presence of the ninja (which was rather shocking, truth be told). Her weapon was gone, her bag of items empty and the garments she had worn in the treatment tank were lying on the floor.

_Though I cannot blame her for that; she was scantily clad even by her own standards._

Vincent had the grace to blush (if only slightly) as he slowly exited the room, looking for any signs of where she had gone. He knew that Yuffie would have known better than to take the stairs – if her condition after being in the tank for hours was anything like his own then it would be almost impossible for her legs to carry her that far…

_The water surrounding him has a faint red glow from the containment materia in the slot of the tank. He has no idea what its purpose is at the time and his eyesight, usually impeccable, only allows him to see the closest person standing to the glass._

_Lucrecia's hair is flowing around her, but he knows it is an illusion from the water. He doesn't want to be here, inside this glass chamber; her belly is full and round, she is almost ready to birth the cursed child she had experimented on. He wants to be out _there_, taking her hand and running away from this blighted mansion full of sick experiments and trying to live like a normal person for the first time since he had become a Turk. He wants to love her and make sure the child becomes more than his genetic composites. He wants _out

_His palms slam against the glass as he screams his wishes. He knows she can read his lips – the masks for inside the tank leave a clear view of his mouth. _Let me out_, he screams, _please_. It can never be said that Vincent Valentine is impolite. Even as she turns to leave, he pleads with Lucrecia in the most respectful tones he can muster._

Help me_, he whispers, but she's already gone._

XxXxX

Yuffie ignored the growling of her stomach as she rifled through cabinets in the kitchen on the ground floor. Most of the supplies in the front section of the kitchen were junk food – chips, cookies, cans of soda. She wanted real food but would have to walk out into the slums to get it, and in her beleaguered state she could not justify that to herself. She settled on a snack-sized bag of cookies and sat on a stool in front of a kitchen island.

Although she still wasn't sure of the time, the ninja realized it must be after 5 because the kitchen was devoid of workers. Everyone outside of Reeve's office had left, with the possible exception of-

Footsteps behind her ended the line of thought. Yuffie turned on the stool and reached subconsciously for a small shuriken; she knew that Conformer was too heavy in her condition. The door opened to reveal Shelke, who paused and held up her hands. Yuffie lowered the shuriken and rolled her eyes.

"Are you alright, Yuffie?" Most people would think that Shelke could not show emotion, but Yuffie had spent enough time with Vincent to read the more subtle suggestions. The girl in the doorway was surprised.

_Although I shouldn't think of her as a girl. She may look like a kid but she's just as old as I am._

Then again, Vincent appeared to be 27 and moped like a 15 year old boy. Yuffie snickered before answering.

"Just hungry, Shelke. What're you up to?" Shelke pointed to a black device attached to her hip, about the size of a deck of cards.

"I just had my mako injection adjusted." Yuffie nodded and patted the stool next to her, offering the other woman a cookie as a gesture of sympathy. Shelke could not live without mako injections, but she was being slowly weaned down to smaller doses while Reeve searched for ways to return her body to some normality.

Shelke and Yuffie ate in silence for a while before the former spoke.

"I have not seen you for almost a week. Have you been busy?" Yuffie looked up and gave a small smile.

"I tracked something for Reeve for a few days. And then it found me." A thought occurred to her. "Shelke, what day is it?"

"Thursday, Yuffie." Yuffie stood up, throwing the bag into a nearby garbage can.

"And the time?"

"6:37 pm. Yuffie, don't you have a clock?" Yuffie laughed as she walked toward the door.

"I killed it. Damn alarm was annoying as hell."

XxXxX

_What made me remember that? _

What indeed. After Chaos had fulfilled his purpose and returned to the Earth, Vincent had promised himself he would move forward with his life. It had been more than a week, and the memory of his time in the water tank was the first image of his past to haunt him. But he could not say that in the hallway was the first time he saw it; as Vincent took the elevator down to the ground floor, it occurred to him.

When Yuffie woke up in the tank he was closest to the glass, and very probably the only person she could see. Of course he couldn't walk away when she asked him to help her…especially considering that at first he had told Reeve not to worry.

The elevator door opened and Vincent strode through the hallways, his mind preoccupied.

_If Reeve had listened to me…_

There was no doubt that Yuffie would have died in the healing house. Vincent had assumed that the ninja had run off after their latest adventure; he had bet on her inability to stay put. Underestimating her character had almost cost the girl her life—

_You're doing it again, Valentine. You can't blame yourself for things that never happened._

It didn't matter. Right now he wanted to see where she was, and the kitchen was the safest bet. Yuffie always ate as soon as she could after waking, even if it was only a nibble.

The only person he saw in the kitchen was Shelke, and she must have sensed his confusion.

"She left. Is Yuffie okay?" Vincent caught himself frowning slightly.

_I don't know._

XxXxX

Tifa looked down out of the window into the sunset before a figure caught her eye. In the street outside of the building stood a short girl with a large shuriken on her back.

"Reeve, shouldn't Yuffie be getting her rest?" She flexed her hands a moment before going for the door. "I swear. You should've tied her down…" Cloud followed and behind him Barret, Nanaki, Cid and Reeve ran to keep up.

Both of the elevators were downstairs, and so they took the staircases in order to head the girl off. Nanaki had quickly gained the lead by leaping and taking them two to four stairs at a time. Cloud couldn't help but smile – the cat really was just a teenager.

On the ground floor they saw Vincent and Shelke walking out of the kitchen, Vincent's eyebrow raised slightly at their pace. Tifa very nearly rolled her eyes.

"She's wandering into the slums at night. Did you expect us to walk?" Red eyes widened slightly and then he was out the front door of the building. Shelke tilted her head and followed. But by the time they had all exited the building, the ninja was gone.

XxXxX

_Something isn't right about this._

Yuffie shook her head and continued walking. It wasn't as cold as her body was making it out to be, she knew. A few days prior she could have walked outside with nothing on at all and not been so chilly. Not that that was ever a good idea, but whatever.

She had decided to go and find real food, but had wandered away from the streets leading to the restaurant district. Now her feet were leading her somewhere else entirely, and her mind was too far into overdrive to care. She knew Shelke had noticed her silence in the kitchen, but Yuffie couldn't bring herself to say what she thought.

All of those months traveling with Vincent, and he had smiled at her _once_; the time she fell into a mud hole and got covered head to toe. He had warned her about the spot but she was paying attention to something else (that she couldn't even remember, now). But Shelke had arrived _as an enemy_ and was still the only one able to bring Vincent back from the waterfall. It didn't make sense.

What made even less sense was how angry she was about it.

It had taken months and years for Yuffie to learn about Vincent's past, and Shelke had covered that ground in days. Yuffie couldn't remember this being more than a passing statement before her sleep. After she woke up, it had nagged her since she saw Shelke's face.

It didn't end with them, either – everyone in the world had something to annoy her with. Tifa's giggling grated on her nerves, and Yuffie knew staring at Cloud's mako eyes would trigger _something_ negative. There was too much history behind that SOLDIER enhancement not to.

Even the fact that she had managed to wander away was irritating. From what she understood, she had been asleep for 3 days. 3 Days, and not one person had checked up on her. But why was she so frustrated? On another day, she would have chalked it up to them realizing she was an adult. Today it was that she was obviously not important enough to worry about. It made her _sick_.

Literally sick. She doubled over and began to retch, tasting the coppery, salty blood as it splashed out of her mouth. A puddle underneath her face showed a dark green glow pouring out of her eyes like water. She spit to get as much of the blood out of her mouth as she could, and stood shakily.

The crater stood before her, big black feathers surrounding an open hole in the asphalt. She hesitated a moment before jumping in to land on the rock in the center, surrounded by water. Feathers floated in the water, and on the rock she read a quote.

"_Even if there is no promise for tomorrow, I swear I will return to the place where you stand._" It sounded like poetry. So somehow, poetry, Genesis, and whatever was making her sick were all connected. Who would be able to connect such completely random dots? The only person she knew with history that confusing was Cloud. Yuffie smiled slightly. She felt a little better after throwing up, oddly enough. A visit with Cloud didn't seem like such a terrible idea anymore.

_And he'll probably buy me dinner!_

XxXxX

Cloud sighed as the group walked out of their third Wutaian restaurant.

"I think it's pretty safe to guess that she's _not eating-_" his PHS buzzed in his pocket and he walked a few steps away from the group to answer.

"Cloud here."

"Gawd, I hope so. Denzel says weird things when he takes your phone." At this point he knew it was Yuffie, but didn't signal to the others just yet.

"Great to hear from you, Yuffs. We were wondering where you'd gone." He could hear her grin on the other side of the line.

"I'm sure. You probably know more about what happened then I do, too. So how about you guys take me to dinner and we'll talk about it?" Cloud almost laughed out loud.

_The poisoning can't have been that bad - this is the Yuffie I know._

"Sounds great. Want Wutaian?"

"Yes! I'm starving. Order anything. Actually, order me _everything_. Get an extra table to hold my food."

"Yuffie, I only work two jobs. I can't afford your appetite." A pause.

"Tell them we're coming! We've only saved the world 3 times, they must have some sort of discount." And then she hung up. This time Cloud did laugh. The others turned to him, more than slightly bewildered.

"So she's not eating _yet_. You guys get a table – I'll wait out here for her." He caught Tifa by the arm before she entered.

"Can you order for us? You know what I like, and Yuffie…well, Yuffie could eat a chocobo right now." Tifa laughed and nodded.

"Tell her I'm mad. She shouldn't have run off like that." Cloud raised an eyebrow.

"You're not mad, are you." It was a statement because he knew without asking. Tifa's grin became wicked.

"No. But a little bit of squirming will teach her a lesson."

* * *

**A/N: **So by now I bet you can guess we ship CloTi here, too. That's good stuff. I figured out that I like pre-DoC Yuffentine a little more than post, but there isn't much I can do to change this now. Also, Yuffentine in Kingdom Hearts has SO MUCH POTENTIAL. Why don't more people write it?

Oh! I wanted to say. If you have a scene from this you like, please feel free to draw it. I personally would draw the part where Vincent rescues Yuffie from the water tank, or some of the things from this chapter...but I can't draw. Bear with me. Thanks for reading!


	8. act 2, chapter 2

**A/N:** I'm starting to think the chapters will be about this length. I like it a lot. Also, I feel like I've lost some of the descriptions (because the pacing...well, you'll see). I guess I just want you guys to know what's going on in their lives. Oh well. Next chapter can have lengthy explanations and whatnot.

I love Post-Angst Cloud a _lot_. I think Yuffie does too. I wonder how Vincent feels about that?

PS. **Act 1 was titled 'Intelligence'. Act 2 is titled 'Action'.**

* * *

**Chapter 2, Act 2: Too Much For You?**

Tifa scanned the long table with a smile. It was a low table with slightly cushioned mats instead of chairs, and one large pillow for Nanaki to sit on comfortably. The guardian was next to Reeve, who was toying with his mane and flicking at his tail. The annoying gestures were the type Yuffie would use, the ones she knew were comforting no matter how much the big cat objected.

Cid and Barret had ordered tea and Wutaian wine; the tea for before Yuffie explained herself and the wine for after, when they could celebrate her being alive. They talked animatedly about the state of the planet, Shera, Marlene and Elmyra in the meantime.

Shelke was sitting next to Vincent, toying with the chopsticks allotted at her seat. She picked up sugar cubes and napkins with it to test her dexterity. The gunman was far more reserved. His eyes were fixed on the doorway, where he could see Cloud waiting outside for the ninja to arrive. He hadn't been so stiff since he had last encountered Hojo, and that said something. Tifa frowned but didn't speak because she saw his expression change.

At the doorway, Cloud and Yuffie were huddled together outside, talking. At first they appeared serious, but as the conversation carried on Yuffie almost fell backward laughing. Cloud grabbed her shoulder to steady her as they entered. She could hear them as they approached, even over the other customers at the restaurant.

"No one believed Denzel except me – or at least, they weren't showing it. But you know Marlene…" Yuffie let out a giggle that could only be described as wicked.

"Oh yeah. She's so much more evil than anyone gives her credit for." The table quieted a moment and stared up at the ninja.

She wasn't soaking wet, but her clothes were sticking close as if she had been in a damp place. Tifa saw Vincent's eyes travel to her stomach, and blanched a little as she tracked his line of sight. Above Yuffie's navel was a scar – one just about the size of the one on Aeris' stomach. She watched Yuffie's hand hover for a moment, about to cover her stomach but then drop.

"You don't have to look at me like that, I'm not gonna drop _dead_ on you." The tension buckled and fell away as Barret stood and crushed the girl in his arms.

"You had us worried, brat. We thought some perv had kidnapped you again." Laughter echoed as Yuffie blushed furiously. Don Corneo was dead as a doorstop but they'd never let her live her embarrassment down from being hung ankles-up from Da Chao.

"I don't think so. I'm officially damaged goods." She swayed dramatically, clutching her stomach. Cloud shrugged.

"Welcome to the club." He showed an impressive scar running down one forearm, raised and paler than his tanning skin. Tifa's laugh cut above the rest of the noise.

"Don't be so dramatic. You got that from one of the kids!" Howling laughter sounded as Yuffie and Tifa took their places between Shelke and Tifa, plates upon plates of food arriving to begin the meal. Tifa looked over at Vincent again, hoping some amusement had crossed him, but saw that he was tighter lipped than ever. Apparently Yuffie's flippant dismissal of her injury was bothering him. It was to be expected. Yuffie would pretend that nothing was wrong at all until she was asked, and even then would give the barest details of the bad news or condition. Tifa fought the urge to smile, because it was a bad habit.

_A bad habit that Yuffie and Vincent share._

"Yuffie…" she began quietly, leaning over Cloud slightly as the ninja slurped noodles. "Yuffie, where did you go?"

Silence as the girl chewed. The others were curious; they leaned forward ever so slightly. After an exaggerated gulp, the ninja looked up at Reeve before speaking. His nod of approval let her recount the tale.

"There's a crater in the middle of the Sector 7 slums. You'd have to be blind not to have seen it by now." Puzzled faces stared back at her. "You mean no one's looked at it?" Tifa shook out of her daze and frowned.

"We thought it was something that happened after OMEGA. You know, debris dropping out of the sky or something." Yuffie shook her head, and motioned for them to eat while she spoke.

"I thought that too, but then things started to fall together. The pavement is blasted _outward_, not in. There were feathers all around the rim of it, and it doesn't just fall into the sewers. There's a cavern down there." She grabbed more noodles and chicken with her chopsticks, her hand free hand gesturing. She seemed to wonder while she chewed, and her eyes turned up to the ceiling.

"There's a rock down there, too. Big and flat. Not weird, that part. But there's a quote scratched on it… _Even if there is no promise for tomorrow…_" On her right, Tifa felt Cloud choke on his rice.

"Loveless?" He sputtered. Yuffie tilted her head at him, obviously confused.

"Loveless. A book of poems, the most famous of which is one about the goddess Minerva." Vincent set his teacup down quietly and glanced at Cloud. "Why is this important?" While Cloud cleared his throat Yuffie replied, looking forward and waving her chopsticks.

"Dunno. But it has something to do with a guy named Genesis. Those feathers are his. He's the guy I fought in Junon." She looked at Cloud expectantly. Across the table, Cid was getting annoyed.

"Some freak that quotes poetry and drops feathers, huh? What the (& does this have to do with us?" A few others nodded in agreement, but Cloud suddenly looked serious.

"It shouldn't have anything to do with anyone. Genesis Rhapsodos was killed years ago – I was there." He turned to Yuffie, his blue eyes hard. "How do you know his name?" The girl blinked, and then flashed what looked to be a grateful smile at Reeve. Feeling more than a little left out, Tifa turned and watched Reeve smile back.

"Like I said, he's the one I fought. He told me his name, and I don't think you can fake what he was." She stopped short, a smile growing on her face.

"No, Yuffie," Tifa warned. "You cannot make a Halloween costume to imitate him." There was a trace of amusement under her stern voice; only Yuffie would dress up as the man who had apparently almost killed her. Cloud followed, his voice a slight mockery of what a father should sound like.

"But if you tell us a little more of what you know, we might let you keep a souvenir once he's dead." He paused. "Well, dead again. How did you find him?"

Yuffie recounted the tale of following feathers and reports of a huge, winged beast throughout the major cities.

"It was a hassle, you know. Some of the people on this continent are sooo backward. I heard he was a flying elephant before it was all over." They couldn't help but nod. The people had grown superstitious after the Meteor incident and more so with each passing attempt on the Planet. Eventually she told about finding the 'winged beast' in Junon's forest, but faltered before she spoke about Genesis drawing his sword. Her gray eyes had grown dark as slate, and a strange green had begun to taint them like moss growing on a stone.

Tifa took a quick glance and saw that Reeve was wincing in preparation for the story. Vincent's eyes had flared, their red depths glowing hot. She poked Yuffie gently, knowing the girl wouldn't accept a normal attempt to soothe her.

"And then you battled. What happened after?" Tifa replaced the usual empathy and softness of her voice with matter-of-fact practicality, knowing that Yuffie did not want to be babied. A smile like the glowing sun thanked Tifa as Yuffie continued.

"I dragged myself out of that godforsaken clearing, is what happened. It began to rain something awful so monsters didn't bother me, and I made my way to Junon's healing house. I don't remember anything between then and this…morning? Between then and waking up in a tank." She turned to Reeve and then Vincent. Vincent, in a rare display of _some_thing, spoke first.

"Reeve was disconcerted by your absence without any messages, and tracked you to Junon. Cid and I picked you up by airship shortly thereafter."

"And you couldn't throw up your &#ing guts because you were asleep," Cid interjected. Vincent continued smoothly, as though he had not been interrupted.

"It took several hours to discern what had caused your blackout, before we found a file on tainted mako." Yuffie stopped mid-swallow to stare, but did not meet Vincent's eyes. Tifa felt her pragmatic mask melting away as she sympathized with Yuffie.

_She probably couldn't tell what was wrong, yet. But that strange glow her eyes had before...of course she's been exposed._

"It's supposed to influence your memories, and wipe away everything but the negative," Vincent finished. The ninja swallowed her mouthful and set down her chopsticks, pushing her now empty bowl to the side. Every eye at the table was on her, and a short Wutaian waiter spied the awkward moment from across the room. He took advantage of it and filled their empty cups with tea before hurrying off.

After a lengthy and potentially disastrous hush Cloud made a show of using his chopsticks to steal off of Yuffie's second plate.

"But you know, until you say something about that it's _none of our business_." The others that she could see dropped their heads, but Tifa dazzled Cloud with a smile. He eye-smiled back at her while Yuffie snatched her plate from his grasp.

"I just can't believe I wasted an entire three days sleeping! I bet you guys left me out of something, too. Did that old man get married while I was under?" She pointed her sticks accusingly at Cid, who balked.

"I should get married while you are asleep. Then I won't have to worry about you destroying the goddamn wedding!"

XxXxX

Vincent stood slightly outside of the group as they began to part ways for the night. Cloud and Tifa would return to the orphanage while Barret would stay with Marlene at Elmyra's house. Cid was planning to fly back to Rocket Town and pick up Shera while Vincent, Shelke, Yuffie, Nanaki and Reeve would go back to their quarters at the WRO building. Before they parted they spent time trading stories and goodbyes until the next day.

Tifa, Barret and Nanaki were standing together, Tifa's hand loosely tangled in Nanaki's mane. Reeve was discussing a project with Shelke and Cid, who had begun to smoke as if to make up for the lost time during dinner. Behind the crowd, tucked away almost in a corner outside the restaurant, were Cloud and Yuffie.

He couldn't see Yuffie's face; she stood with her back to him, waving her hands in wild gestures while Cloud listened intently. He was frowning slightly and nodding, and his mako eyes radiated understanding. At one point, Vincent saw Cloud reach for his pink ribbon with a sad smile, and gesture for Yuffie to keep talking. He could tell when Yuffie had finished though, because she fell back against the wall as if the talking had exhausted her. Before Cloud began, his eyes flicked up and caught the gunman's for a split second; but then his attention was on her again, and Vincent felt a coiling heat in his chest.

It didn't make sense. The beginnings of frustration were bubbling inside of him, even though he had no reason to be upset. Yuffie was alive, and while she was not perfectly well it appeared she may suffer no permanent damage. His eyes narrowed slightly and he forced them to look somewhere else.

To his surprise, Tifa was now standing by his side.

"They're going to talk each other to death if we don't leave soon." He could hear the smile in her voice and looked back over at the pair. They were walking back to the group now, and Yuffie had a smile from ear to ear. Tifa shivered. "Ohgodwhatdidhetellher?" Now Vincent was curious. The slight panic in Tifa's voice as she moved forward to intercept them made him follow her just to hear.

"Oh don't worry Teef, she'll be a natural." Cloud looked down at Yuffie and shrugged. "The bike just requires balance. I'm sure you can handle it." Yuffie's grin never seemed to end.

"So I get to ride Fenrir?" Cloud stopped short, his eyes wide.

"What? No. NO." He waved his hands and shook his head. "Shera can help you get one. Or maybe make you one. I'll just teach you when that happens." He shook his head again. "Fenrir is too much bike for you." Yuffie pouted like a child until she heard Tifa's sigh of relief. Cloud began to lead Tifa back to the WRO building while Yuffie and Vincent trailed them, Yuffie and Tifa arguing the point about Fenrir. The others lagged behind them, knowing that they needed to get their vehicles from the building but not ready to leave each other's company. Vincent looked up after a few paces to see Cloud walking beside him, the girls ahead of them and out of hearing distance.

"I can't stay at the building tonight – I owe the kids a story" he began, his voice low. "And I know you will anyway, but keep an eye on Yuffie, will you?" Cloud became quieter still until Vincent had to strain to hear him. "She's not comfortable talking about the effects, but she won't be able to avoid them while she sleeps." Vincent fought the urge to scowl.

_If she's so ill at ease with her condition how can she talk to you about it?_

Instead he nodded graciously and attempted to quell his irritation. They talked about other issues in the last blocks approaching the WRO building; working with (and for) Reeve, where the Turks and Rufus had disappeared to. How Shelke's treatment was faring, whether Shalua would ever wake.

For his part, Vincent didn't mind working for Reeve. In as few words as he could manage he explained that Reeve was actually the best 'boss' he had ever had. (Which wasn't saying much, considering.) He suspected the former president of Shinra was using whatever influence he had left elsewhere, redeeming himself as he had promised, or just hiding from the masses. The Turks would follow him wherever that led, if they were worth their paychecks. Shalua's future seemed promising with all of the doctors assigned to her; but Shelke's would be cut short if she ever mentioned that name in front of Yuffie again.

Cloud laughed at that as they approached the garage of the building. Goodbyes were being said, and Tifa had climbed onto the back of his bike. He didn't hide what he was saying from her, or the swift change his tone made from lighthearted to dead serious.

"Having someone die for you is powerful…there's nothing you can do except be grateful and make the best of yourself for them. Of course Yuffie would be angry – someone's died for her, and there's nothing that can be done. But Shalua has a fighting chance and Shelke is uninterested." A period of heavy, angry stillness passed before his expression softened. "It's hard to care about anything after being experimented on, but you would think that something that big would make it across."

By this time only Cloud, Tifa and Vincent were left in the garage, and then with Fenrir's roar, Cloud and Tifa sped off – leaving the gunman alone with his thoughts.

XxXxX

Yuffie snuggled into her blankets with a yawn.

She was amazed that she could be tired after sleeping for three days, but apparently her body had fallen back into some sort of routine already.

_Sleep when you need it and get up when you're ready._

She still had plenty of things to think on, however.

Cloud had saved her ass by stealing from her plate earlier, and asked later how bad she thought the mako poisoning was. Of course she could talk to him about it – Cloud was their expert on the topic, having had several cases himself. She had briefly described the dreams as war, death and more death, sparing details of the scene in Wutai. He had been a great audience as well, when she explained her fight with Genesis.

"He can't actually invade your mind," Cloud had reassured her. "He may be able to use the mako to suggest things, but that's all. Focus on what you actually want to do and you can stamp that out." Having things to concentrate on made recovery faster, he said; maybe something like learning to ride a motorcycle.

The gleam in his eye when he relayed the thought was mischievous and had scores of potential. She had taken him up on his offer immediately.

His last warning had been about her eyes. He had noticed them turn green a moment, and advised her to carry a mirror.

"When they change color is probably when the mako is beginning to affect you. Be wary about it, and put up your guard." It was good to admit, even for a moment, that she didn't know _everything._

But she was still damn close. Honestly - who could beat the Great Ninja Yuffie?

XxXxX

As he slipped the black sweater over his head, the thoughts seemed to swirl like a whirlpool.

_It shouldn't be important. I had headaches when she would bombard me with talk._

But now the girl was barely speaking to him at all. Had he offended her when he picked her up to carry her to bed? He just didn't want her to cut her feet…!

_Why do I care? _

A good question. He had felt guilty when she would not wake, because he had assumed that any trouble she got into was her fault. But now she was on her feet again, and he was still…unhappy? That didn't describe it. It felt more like anger, but who was he angry at?

_Reeve, for sending her into danger._

The man had not done any research at all before sending Yuffie into a potentially lethal situation. And yet she still paid him more attention over dinner than she had given Vincent all night.

_Cloud, for…?_

For what? For being able to discuss things with her like a friend? She had talked to him almost nonstop – had called him first to find where they were. Or perhaps she hadn't expected (or even wished) to see anyone else at all?

_Genesis._

At least this one made sense. The very name was making his blood grow hot. He had dared to mortally wound Yuffie, and--

_Yuffie…?_

Yuffie. He was confused about the details, but he did know that her dismissive attitude toward the wound that almost _killed her_ had him more than a little annoyed. She was weaker than a newborn kitten when he had found her in Junon, but now she was acting as if that didn't matter at all.

Something was still missing though, and he pulled his hair out of his sweater with narrowed eyes. It didn't fit together. Yuffie hadn't spoken to him, with the exception of first waking up, since after OMEGA was destroyed.

_She hasn't looked me in the eye since OMEGA was destroyed,_

he realized, and it stung a little deep down. Yuffie had never avoided eye contact with him, not even when his crimson orbs scared away other AVALANCHE members. The others became comfortable eventually, but she had never been afraid.

And now she wouldn't even deal with him unless she was delirious.

_What could I have done?_

XxXxX

Cloud tucked the sheets around Denzel's sleeping form and walked downstairs to the living room. There was a roaring fire in the hearth and already two mugs of cocoa on the table between a sofa and the fireplace. Tifa had even put marshmallows and whipped cream on top.

_What'd I do to deserve _this

He picked up a mug and sat next to the brunette with a small smile. All of the furniture was mismatched because the children each had a favorite pattern and refused to let one go; this piece was a two-seater with a black background and large hot air balloons printed on it. He knew she wouldn't admit it, but Tifa liked this piece. Flying always did make her happy…

"What did I do to deserve this?" He took a sip of the cocoa, very slowly. There was real melted chocolate inside, and he wanted to savor it. Tifa watched him a moment before answering.

"Yuffie was in bad shape tonight, you know." She looked over and smiled widely at him, wine red eyes full of gratitude and something else. "Your help meant a lot to her." Cloud shrugged and set the mug down.

_Still a little too hot._

"It wasn't a big deal. Yuffie's our friend." He looked over and a thought struck him. "But Vincent looked a little stiff." There was a question in his voice. He knew that Tifa had picked up on Vincent's attitude over dinner and expected that she understood it better than he did. Tifa had some sort of emotional radar that was both disturbingly accurate and incredibly inconvenient...his thoughts were confirmed when she snickered, covering her mouth.

"I had thought about that. It took me a little while to get it, but I'm sure you noticed. Vincent was worried about her, and when she didn't acknowledge it-" her eyes lit with a dangerous glow, "-well, he got _jealous_."

Cloud took a moment to consider this, but the thought got scrambled and he was left with more questions.

"Jealous? Of what? She usually won't leave him alone." Tifa grinned in a manner that reminded Cloud of the ninja.

"You. He was jealous of you. You spent all that time talking to Yuffie but she didn't give him the time of night." Tifa's eyes lost their spark for a moment. "Which is really weird. I wonder what's up?" She shook her head. "In any case, they're going to have to talk about it eventually." Her tone clearly stated '_And I will know all about it!'_

Cloud sighed and picked up his cocoa again. They had much more important matters to worry about. The only reason the AVALANCHE members had gone home at all was to arrange for things to be taken care of – Cid would decide whether Shera would come on this journey with him, Barret tell Marlene that she would be staying at the orphanage again while Elmyra prepared to take care of it in their absence. Nanaki would have Reeve send a message to Bugenhagen and tell him that they were on a journey; Reeve would be rewiring Cait Sith. Cloud and Tifa had already told the children that they were going to be off helping Yuffie, to which none of them objected (Denzel in particular was excited by the idea, as Yuffie told him stories of her adventures).

Only Vincent and Yuffie would have a full night's sleep. Vincent had no one to call outside of AVALANCHE and Yuffie would not bother to send a letter to Godo until they were well on their way.

Cloud frowned slightly as he amended his thought. Vincent may have a full night of sleep, but Yuffie was likely to react to the mako while she dreamt…and he did not envy her.

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**A/N:** This chapter done and I already have ideas for the next. Yay! 

I hope to GAWD I'm keeping Vincent IC. I just think that if he decided to embrace life again, his emotions would be wonky for a while. Also, to explain what appears to be bipolar writing of the Shelke-Yuffie relationship; wait for next chapter. It'll explain a lot of things.

In a FFVII universe without Tifa or Vincent I'd be a Clouffie fan. But Tifa and Vincent exist, and I adore them, and Clouffie friendship to me. (But maybe Vincent doesn't think so. This ought to be fun, right?) **Read and Review, maybe? Send love? Send constructive criticism? (_emphasis on constructive, btw_)**


	9. act 2, chapter 3

**A/N:** And another chapter gone. I couldn't tell how to finish it...I swear it's all been written except the last bit, which I put in today.

I have to read yuffentines (or see fanart) or just find subtext before I can write it. It kicks my inspiration. Enough talk - time for the chapter. My last is a thinks to all of the readers, reviewers, and Defenestrator especially (even though I try not to bother you with random chapter mail anymore)!

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**Chapter 3, Act 2: Shock Treatment**

It had been barely an hour into her sleep before Yuffie sat up, trembling and angry.

_Damn dreams!_

She climbed out of bed and swiftly changed out of her moogle pajamas, putting on her treatment outfit. She didn't particularly like the clothing but her task would be easier with less fabric on. She had a method for bad dreams – work herself until she couldn't possibly think of anything, and then fall asleep. She'd be dead to the world for a few hours and relatively rested in the morning.

She cleared a spot on the floor large enough to do basic workouts in, and got down to business. Standing on her hands, she let her body down until her hair brushed the floor, and then pushed back into a full handstand. Even the usual thoughts at her success ('_that's right, badass shinobi here!'_) were pushed out of her mind as she focused.

Her body strengthening techniques were supposed to be done at least every other night, and she felt a slight strain on her muscles, more than usual. The three days of sleep had let her muscles relax a little too much for the ninja's liking; she hoped to make up for it with these hours of training.

XxXxX

Falling through the sky was strangely more comforting than riding in an airship. With her head downward and her body arched to gather speed, she could at least plan her fall and prepare for the shock. The wind whipping through her hair and buffeting her skin was more familiar than a ship rocking on the currents, no matter how much time she spent in the Highwind, or the Shera, or the Tiny Bronco-

_Praise be to Leviathan for sinking that metal deathtrap!_

Just as she thanked her deity her head collided with what felt like the ocean. She couldn't open her eyes, or she would have looked; but she was being swung gently back and forth by some flowing material. A few things contrasted her water theory, though, with the foremost being that she was still breathing as if it were air.

Finally she turned herself right, and her feet touched solid ground. She snapped her eyes open as fast as she could, and wished that she had not.

Before her were dozens of bodies, hanging like marionettes from above. There was no ceiling, though, just flat earth and a black sky with no stars. The landscape was wrong but houses on either side were the wood and paper dwelling of Wutai, heavily burnt and in complete disarray…the way they had looked when her father had surrendered the War. Torches were lit on either side, just in front of the houses, lending their light to the bodies hanging.

She could see her cousins who died in those battles, their equipment on the ground beneath their bodies. The clothes they had worn and the wounds they had endured were still there, as none of them had yet been dressed for burial. She walked between them, not fearing their forms or their open eyes, glassy and unknowing. There were soldiers she had barely known and those she had identified with as a child; in the sea of corpses she recognized two of Chekhov's children, frozen in time as teenagers.

She kept walking, her skin growing cold as she moved toward the center of the hanging remains, and saw what she knew would be there.

In the very center was an altar of deep red wood surrounded by unlit incense. It had two bodies upon it side by side, though one was lifted slightly higher than the other. The body below was the flower girl, her light brown hair curled around her pale skin. She wore her pink dress and boots, all of her battle accoutrements left behind somewhere. It was fitting – the Cetra had always looked lost on a battlefield. Her eyes were shut, a flower tucked between her hands. At her side lay her staff, and the Holy materia was nestled between two of her fingers.

The higher body was Lady Kisaragi, and she looked beautiful. Long black hair splayed about her like a fan, and her delicate features were peaceful. She wore no makeup and was not dressed for her funeral, but was in a long green kimono embroidered with yellow flowers. Godo had thought the thing atrocious, the colors not complementing each other at all, but Yuffie and her mother had loved it. In the woman's hands was her battle fan, and Yuffie stroked her fingers lightly before reaching into her pocket.

She stared at her mother's face hungrily before opening her box of matches, walking around the altar to light incense. As the flames sputtered into life and the sweet smells began to waft into the night, she heard the corpses falling onto the ground, slumping over each other. It seemed to make sense…only by honoring her loved ones could she let them rest. Hadn't the traditions of Wutai taught her that? Was it not Leviathan's word?

Finally the task was done, and she looked behind her only to be surprised. The dream had been peaceful enough until that moment.

Shalua stood there, blood leaking from her head where she had taken Azul's wrath. As she watched, more began to come into view – Cloud, his eyes clouded and glowing, one of the signs of mako poisoning. Tifa was covered in cuts and bruises, one arm bent and broken. Nanaki was barely walking, limping and hiding his good eye, which appeared to have gone missing. Barret and Cid were stumbling, Cid hacking and sputtering, Barret covering his stomach where it bled. Reeve was pale and sickly, his veins colored a violent purple from some deadly poison. The last to appear was merely a coffin, a coffin from the Shinra mansion.

The torches fell over and set the bodies, the buildings, the altar ablaze, and finally the stars appeared above as if to watch. Their voices carried down from the sky, whispering in malicious tones

_Still so young…you have all of your life to fail._

XxXxX

Reeve sat behind his desk and glanced around the office, smiling lightly at the faces of his very sleepy friends. Shera and Cid were on a couch to one side, having somehow managed to bring hot tea up the three stories to his place of work. Cloud and Tifa were against the wall to the other side, Tifa's head rested on Cloud's shoulder. He was used to getting by on only a few hours, but Tifa enjoyed her rest when she could get it. Nanaki and Barret were closest to the desk, Barret almost fidgeting impatiently in his chair while Nanaki had curled up on the floor. The usually dignified cat had forgotten all pretense as it was fairly early.

Vincent stood near the door, waiting for the last of them to arrive. Yuffie was only down the hall but had not exited her room yet, and it was unlike her to sleep in. She woke with the dawn and would nap later if she felt like it, curling up like a cat…Reeve grinned.

_Like a sneaky, thieving cat._

He waved his hand toward Vincent to say '_why don't you go get her already?_' and hid his wide smile as the gunman stalked out of the room, closing the door silently. The others did not watch him go, preoccupied as they were with staying awake.

XxXxX

Vincent strode down the hall to his left and stopped in front of Yuffie's door, knocking quietly. She slept lightly, he knew, and waking her with a large noise would only annoy her. When she did not answer he knocked more insistently, and finally opened the door.

The room was still a mess, everything from toys to weapons lying on the floor except for one spot in the middle of the royal blue carpet that was clear.

Yuffie lay with her legs splayed out, her back flat to the floor and her arms almost at right angles with her body. Her hair was plastered to her forehead and her body covered in a fine sheen of sweat, the scraps of fabric they had covered her with in the water tank clinging to her skin. Vincent weighed his options carefully before stepping any closer.

She was obviously indecent – it appeared that she had been engaged in some physical activity and fallen asleep with exhaustion. But it was also possible that she had passed out, or that her fever had returned, or a thousand other likelihoods given her recent illness.

_It would be remiss of me not to check her condition._

Finally he took off the glove from his un-clawed hand and knelt, pressing the back of his palm to her forehead. He was only slightly surprised when Yuffie's hand snapped to grab his wrist. Her forehead was cool but as her eyes opened he saw her cheeks go red. She sat up rather stiffly with her back to him, and he almost didn't hear what she said from staring at where the sword had gone through her back.

"You shouldn't touch me. I'm all gross and junk…" She stood up and arched, cracking her back and turning to face him on the floor. "So if you wanted an eyeful, this is your last chance for now." Her mouth turned up into a grin that only barely touched her eyes as she threw one hand to her hips and the other behind her head. Vincent stood and stared into her eyes a moment, comforted by the fact that she did not look away. The trace of amusement in her gray-green orbs was a flickering light compared to what else he could see there, the rapid thoughts, worry, restlessness. He had always thought that her carelessness and absolute lack of discretion were deplorable, but without them…

_She's a completely different person. It's as if she's aged 20 years in those 4 days._

Four days, counting the day she had battled Genesis, looked like they were almost enough to slay the childish indifference that was Yuffie Kisaragi. It was…wrong. Wrong like snow in summer. Wrong like the color of her eyes. Vincent froze before focusing more on her eyes, watching the gray become infected by with a dark green glow.

Yuffie and Vincent had been staring at each other for several long moments, the ninja having let her hands drop to her sides. She turned silently toward her private bathroom for a shower but before she was two paces away felt a smack on the back of her head.

Vincent had taken his glove and whacked the back of her head with it the way one would challenge another to a duel. When she whipped around to face him, her expression a portrait of disbelief, he was pulling the glove on, tugging one side of his mouth up into a smirk. It felt like a stretch to his facial muscles, but one that was well worth it. He looked up from his gloved hand to see her leering at him, finally interested in his presence.

"Valentine, get out of here before I find a way to throw up on you or something." She flicked a small shuriken up from the floor with her toe into her hand, and threw it past his ear as a warning. The weapon had clipped a little lock of hair and stuck it to the back of her door. Vincent stepped backwards and glared at her, not bothering to reclaim his hair from the door as she had won it from him.

"The others are in Reeve's office," he commented, and she nodded before turning back to reach the shower. Vincent turned and shut the door softly behind him, taking more time to get to Reeve's door than he needed.

_I had to shock her back to normal._

Yuffie had been more detached than he was used to, but at least now she would try and stare him down. He didn't have her back, but it was a good start.

He had already leaned back against the office wall before he questioned that feeling.

XxXxX

Yuffie had had to throw up again, more dark black blood spilling from her mouth into the toilet, before she could brush her teeth and shower.

It had been strange to wake up with Vincent Valentine directly in her face – he had woken her up when they would travel together, but never with that look in his eyes. Today he had been concerned, and not in an 'I need you alive to help me battle monsters' kind of way. She didn't want to try and interpret him right that instant, because for some reason it had become difficult.

_Tainted mako. It's supposed to kill off the positive, huh._

It seemed to be working. She had flashes of pleasant thoughts like '_Cloud's gonna teach me to ride a bike!'_ and _'Hehehe, Cid just said he would marry Shera'_, but they drowned in the over-the-top angsty thoughts she kept getting. For every _'SWEET!'_ there were three _'no one likes you and you're gonna die in a ditch all by yourself with no gil and some crappy unmastered materia.'_ It was enough to drive a girl mad.

She climbed out of the shower, shaking her hair like a wet dog. It wouldn't do. She had to find a way to make the best of things before she died of all the negativity, or lack of sleep, or just went crazy. There was no way she was going to be bested by some Lifestream-gone-wrong. Drying off and putting on a battle outfit, Yuffie declared war on her evil, tainted mako mind-poisony problem. Her friends were trying to cheer her up, and she knew it – Cloud would never have agreed to teach her something so dangerous as riding a motorcycle without prompt. Tifa had been especially kind to her all the night before, and Vincent…

Vincent had smacked her with his glove. And _smiled about it_. If she remembered correctly, it was the second smile he had ever flashed at her…or at least the second smile he had let her see. In any case, Yuffie stood up straight after pulling the shuriken out of the back of her door. She fingered the long black hair Vincent had left behind – there was enough of it to tie like a ribbon. She posed in front of her mirror with Conformer for a while, and the hand that carried only the lock of hair felt insubstantial. Reaching into a drawer to her right Yuffie extricated a battle fan that had been made for her by a smith in Wutai. She tied the black hair around the center ring of the fan and twirled the weapon skillfully.

She opened and closed the fan with a pleasing _snikt!_ noise she remembered from training, and bounced down the corridor. Yuffie Kisaragi had dangled from the faces of Da Chao, lived on her own in the wild forests for years, watched Meteor fall from the sky, faced down the Great General more than once. She would not be taken out by some poisoned Planet blood from a petri-dish in a dusty laboratory!

Her foot rose and kicked open the door to Reeve's office, the adrenaline pumping through her veins letting her ignore the soreness of her limbs. When the door swung back helplessly she caught snatches of astonished gazes. The sound of the handle slamming into the wall preceded her, striding in as confident as ever with Conformer held in her right hand and the fan spinning in her left.

"I know; you can't stop staring. It's okay! I get that a lot." She beamed so hard at Reeve's shocked expression that she felt her face beginning to hurt. Behind her back the door closed swiftly and slammed shut.

XxXxX

Against the back wall of Reeve's office was an armchair that fit Yuffie perfectly, not just physically but metaphorically. It was an obvious addition from her home in Wutai – different blue hues of the ocean and stars that looked suspiciously like materia. Reeve watched her snuggle into it before giving a report to a still astonished audience.

"We know that Genesis Rhapsodos is some sort of Shinra experiment and that's he's up to _some_thing, and that he's _supposed_ to be dead but what does that count for anyway?" A small chorus of assent followed. Hadn't Sephiroth appeared again in his clones? Death was really very abstract in the world of AVALANCHE – it only took the people you wanted to keep.

"But you were there that time, so what's up, Cloud?" Yuffie motioned to Cloud and dangled her foot off of one side of the chair, spinning the fan. Nanaki felt his mouth turn up at the sight of her before turning to Cloud himself.

"Genesis was injected with Jenova cells, but not the same type as Sephiroth. His didn't pan out so well…Sephiroth went insane, but Genesis' body deteriorated." Slight unease ran through the room at the word 'Jenova' and Nanaki could almost feel Shera shivering from her spot on the couch. Something about that…_thing_ made it almost impossible to kill. He noticed that Cloud and Tifa looked about as unconcerned as anyone could be, and wondered if they had made peace with their pasts.

"He and Sephiroth served together as SOLDIER First Class, but Genesis was jealous. Apparently they served in all the same places, always together, and Sephiroth was the one the people called a hero. I think Genesis was out for revenge on him, but he couldn't get very far because his body was falling apart. Sometime during the war in Wutai, he defected…soldiers hired by Shinra started to go missing. That's when Zack, Sephiroth and I were sent to look for him." Cloud's eyes turned up to the ceiling for a moment, like the memory had caught him.

"He had traveled back to the mainland, out in this small town between Nibelheim and Corel. The place couldn't have had more than 15 houses total. He had rented one and put the soldiers inside to experiment on them to look for a cure for himself, but it failed. They were all dead or dying by the time we arrived. We fought him until he couldn't go on, and it looked like he had come to peace with everything. We assumed that he died there…I guess we were wrong." Cloud tilted his head slightly in his 'Fill-in-the-blanks' face.

"Did he look like he was still falling apart?" He asked. Yuffie shook her head.

"His body regenerated like a freaky starfish or something. I stabbed him dead on in the chest and his wound started healing as soon as Conformer was out of him. It was slow and all, but if I had used a lesser weapon he probably would've just healed faster." Reeve cleared his throat and looked ahead pointedly.

"No matter what condition he's in, we can't find much more about Genesis here. None of Gast's files have anything to do with him…apparently Gast inherited the project but didn't have anything to do with Genesis' creation." Tifa tapped her foot while she spoke, a habit she had while thinking aloud.

"So Gast's house in Icicle Town is probably useless to us too. The only other big records place we know of is the mansion." To the surprise of everyone but Cid, Shera's voice was the first to ring out in response.

"Nibelheim isn't that bad of a flight. The airship will be ready within the hour." She smiled warmly behind her teacup while she sipped again, and no one in the room could help but smile back (even if it was only in their mind).

XxXxX

Reeve felt his eyes crinkle as he closed the latch on Cait Sith's outer shell. Shera really was very charming in a quiet, dormouse-y way. He wouldn't be surprised if she had somehow forced Cid to bring her along on this trip, but she would be a great addition. She was the only other person he knew of that could repair Cait Sith, and Cid had always said she was the 'best goddamned engineer this side of the Lifestream'.

The others had gone to pack the essentials for their expedition, including clothes, some food, plenty of gil, materia and weapons. They usually didn't carry as many healing supplies as they needed, but Cloud had been sure to sneak extra potions and bandages along with his incredibly large stack of phoenix downs. Reeve was sure that if Cloud preferred a deity, it would be the phoenix; but as a soldier and a mercenary Cloud had learned that no one is as dependable as your own self.

As for the others, Cid was supervising the preparation of the Shera, and the flesh and blood Shera was working on upgrading Barret's gun arm. Vincent and Yuffie had disappeared to pack, Nanaki was collecting his weapons and Tifa -

Reeve snapped out of his mental wanderings when a knock sounded on the door. It was three short taps before Tifa entered with a small smile.

_Okay, so Tifa's _here

"We're ready to leave. Is Cait coming?" In reply, Reeve tapped on the keyboard behind him. The robot sprung to life, doing a short spinning dance and blaring carnival music. The cat and moogle duo hi-fived Reeve before bouncing out the door past Tifa.

A silence hung between the two for a moment before Tifa started.

"We know you didn't mean for her to get hurt-" Reeve nodded almost desperately.

"She's my friend... I would never have sent her into danger like that." Tifa strode forward and hugged Reeve from across the desk, wine red eyes full of sympathy.

"Of course not. Don't worry about it. Everything's going to be ok." She gave him her best smile before walking away, closing the door softly. Reeve couldn't help but smile back.

_I wonder if Cloud knows how lucky he is._

XxXxX

Yuffie took a last, withering look at her pack before removing Oritsuru. As much as she would like to, she couldn't carry _all_ of her weapons without her clothes getting shredded by stray sharp edges. Nibelheim was colder than Sephiroth's glare; she needed to be covered.

"Have you considered more appropriate clothing?" Of course Vincent would walk up when she was distracted by her pack. He always seemed to know the moments he could sneak up on her.

"Mobility is my first concern," she said, not bothering to turn around to the man in her doorway. Sometimes using his language stopped the argument. But just for good measure… "I'd have worn a bikini if Nibelheim wasn't so _cold_…" This time she did turn, while Vincent seemed to be hiding his face in his cloak. Was that a _blush_ she saw? She moved around the room collecting useful materia while he regained his composure. Leaning against the doorframe made him look cool, but if he couldn't take one bikini joke…

_All that talk about 'moving on' and he's still a stuffy old dead guy._

Yuffie stood straight up and stock still when the thought hit her. She looked Vincent in the eye and wondered if he could see what she was thinking.

"So you want me to change into what?" She tilted her head and gave him an appraising look, one she knew made him the teensiest bit nervous. Very few things made Vincent shrink away, but she had learned them all while they traveled together. He straightened up and looked her in the eye, accepting the challenge.

"Weather appropriate clothing. You have been and still are grievously ill. The cold will not be kind." Yuffie walked forward, contemplating the argument. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. She had wanted a coat even to walk in Midgar at night. (Not that she would tell him that, ever.) She stopped walking less than a step away from him, knowing that the closeness would unnerve him.

"Fair enough. But you're going to have to give me something in return." She bit back the urge to grin at Vincent's suddenly stone-like face. Something was getting to him.

"In return for your own health?" Monotone. Yuffie looked away, putting on a pondering face.

"I won't be able to move as fast or as silently with that kind of junk on. And I'll probably lose points for sexiness, too…" She looked back into the stone face, which, if possible, had gotten even less revealing. Now the red eyes seemed to have darkened a bit to hide something. "That kind of sacrifice doesn't come cheap," she finished. She watched him weigh his options before giving the slightest sigh.

"What can I give you?" Yuffie smirked. Quick as a flash her hands unbuckled the cloak, revealing all of Vincent's face to her. It slid off of his back and shoulders like rippling water to pool at their feet. Red eyes widened a fraction at Yuffie's bold move, but while Vincent regarded her in shock, she gave his leather suit a once over. It was old and could do with being replaced, but she didn't mind. For all the wear and tear it was tight in just the right places…

_Where did THAT come from?!_

She shook her head and turned quickly, doing her best to saunter back to her set of drawers.

"That will do. Now if you'll turn away? No peeking. Or you can just stand outside the door, whatever floats your chocobo…" The door clicked shut with the cloak still in her room. Yuffie muffled her laughter before rifling through the clothing.

Tifa had given her clothing every winter to try and convince the ninja to not freeze to death. Some of the older things would be rather tight, but that wouldn't be a problem until she tried to hide kunai on her person. She removed all but two of the regular outfits from her bag and replaced them with various winter outfits.

_And one bikini._

Just for laughs, of course; they never had the luck to stop in Costa Del Sol. Her current outfit was a pair of thick inky black corduroys that she tucked into her creamy yellow boots, and a clingy green sweater with long sleeves and a turtle neck. Tifa had picked it because it looked exactly like her old green top, but with sleeves. She put on various belts to hold shuriken and kunai and just to have belts. They came in very handy now and then.

She looked at the red cloak for a moment before stuffing it into her bag. If Vincent had a relapse into melodrama, she was sure he would want it.

_If not, then this is still a kickass blanket!_

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**A/N: **So I wanted the part where she walks out in new clothes to be next chapter. Fortunately I'm chock-full of love for this fandom right now and I hope it'll be done before the weekend's out. And I hope I'm not moving Vincent too fast - he gets flustered, you know? I'm sure incredibly inappropriate clothing and pretty obvious flirting would do that to any guy.

Read and review! See ya soon...


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